Stilettos & Scoundrels (18 page)

I shook my
he
ad as if that would clear up my
sight and looked again. Nope
. It didn’t change anything. I didn’t know what shocked me
more
,
the fact that Helen was cheating on her husband or that she was doing it in someone’s car
,
where the entire world could see. Was she nuts? Who knew who might come along?
Someone more threatening than me
could really cause Helen’s reputation some damage.
What the hell is going on?
I
sat there thinking
about how this changed my
opinion of Senator Daniels just a little. He wasn’t the only one with a roving eye. However, if Helen knew the way he acted
then
maybe
she figured that
what was good for the goose was good for the gander. You couldn’t blame a girl for getting even.
I
tried t
o change my position to see if I
could get a better loo
k at the guy Helen was with. I
was dying to know who she was w
ith, but no matter which way I turned, I
couldn’t tell. So, short of walking up and knocking on the window,
(and I
didn’t have the
balls
for that move), I
knew I
wasn’t going to
be able to
identify the person Helen was kissing. Too bad
Katy
wasn’t here. She would do it.

I
sat there trying to process this chain of events; Helen and the mystery man must have gotten tired of their tryst and started the car.
I
shrank down in
my
seat as they drove by, praying they wouldn’t see
me
.
I
wanted this to stay a secret until
I
could figure out what the hell to do with this information, if anything. This had to be valuable in some way.
I
didn’t
see the guy’s face, but maybe
Cooper
, Dirt, or Katy would
know
who drove a red car
and
might have the hots for Helen
Daniels
. Once they were far enough past
me
,
I
started the engine back up to continue to Brian’s.
But a
s
I
started to pull out,
I
was surprised again.
My
dad was driving by. What was he doing out here at this time of night? He didn’t notice
me
either or surely he would have stopped or waved or something.
I
watched as he continued down Main St
reet
and turned down Easy St
reet.
Hmmm…where was he going?

It only took a few minutes to get to Brian’s. As
I
pulled in,
I
thought
about
what
I
witnessed and what it meant.
I wondered what I
should do about it, if anything. This could be a great scoop for
my
article, but
I
wasn’t sure
I
was comfortable with that. Maybe
I
should ask Trevor what to do
,
but what if he wanted
me
to use it
?
I
didn’t want to be malicious.
I
just didn’t have the stomach for that.
I hadn’t suspected
these types of dilemmas would crop up in
my
new career as a writer. It sure ha
d
been interesting thus far
—m
uch more interesting than
the drama of
corporate America.

As
I
stepped out of
my
car,
I
saw Brian in the garage working on some old car. It brought back memories of days when
I
stopped by to visit Brian at his parents
’
. He always seemed to be working on a car. It was something he did with his dad all the time. He was lucky in some ways to have something he really enjoyed and
to
be able to turn it into a lucrative business. He had
what I
had been missing.
I
had fallen out of love
with
my
job long ago but kept at it because
I
didn’t know how to get out of the rut. Lucky for
me, I
was fired. Lucky for him
,
he really did follow his dreams.

Brian heard
someone walking up the drive and
quit what he was doing and looked up. When he saw it was
me,
he scowled.
He was none too happy to see me
and
had no problem showing it
.

Noticing his scowl, I decided I better shift gears into my reason for the visit.

“What are you doing here?
Do you realize what time it is?
”

“
I know it’s late, but
I wanted to talk to you about last night.”

“What about
it,
Presley
?
Last might was a mistake. A huge mistake.”

“Brian
,
don’t say that. You were being honest and I get th
at. You just caught
me off guard. I haven’t talked to you in forever
,
and you just sprung that on me.”

“I know. I guess I just was caught up in the moment. I shouldn’t have left you there.”

“You’re right
,
you shouldn’t have
.
”
I
playfully punched him in the arm. “Next time you do that
,
I will punch you harder. Lucky for you
,
Dirt happened by and gave me a ride home.”

“I know,” Brian said sheepishly. “He called me after he dropped you off and told me.”

“He did
?
”

“Yep. After he gave me a hard time about leaving you there in the first place.”

I
laughed. “Well
,
you want to do this over? We can talk while you work. Just like old times.”

“That would be nice. Pass me that wrench over there,” Brian, said nodding his head in the direction of his tools.

Bang, bang, bang.

What the hell?
What was that racket waking
me
out of a sound sleep?
I
had been
late last night trying to smooth things over with Brian
. It had gone
well
,
and
so I had
stay
ed
out much later than planned. Then
,
I
spent all nig
ht tossing and turning because I
couldn’t stop thinking about seeing Helen.
I
t felt like
I
had just
gone
to bed.
I
just couldn’t handle the lack of sleep like
I
used to
when I was younger
. As
I
tried to use the pillow to
drown out the sounds from below,
I
heard her dad walking
toward
the
front
door.

“Hold your horses,” he yelled at the door as the banging continued incessantly.
After a pause, I heard him open
the door
.
I could make out
the voice of
Cooper
Sands
, but couldn’t tell what he was saying.
I
sat up in bed, confused
.
Why was
Cooper
banging on
my
parents’
front door at six o’clock in the morning
?
No wonder
I
felt like
I
had
just
gone
to bed
—I’d
only
had
three hours
of
sleep.
My
dad yelled up the stairs.

“Presley, come down here
,
please
!
”

“In a minute,” I
yelled back, scrambling to throw on some decent clothes. If
Cooper
looked half as cute as he
did yesterday, looking like I
was still
half-asleep would not work. I
was not one of those glamour girls who could wake up looking properly sleep
-
t
ousled and sexy. No sir, not me. I woke up looking like I
just went
five rounds with Mike Tyson. I
didn’t have a lot of time
,
so
I
threw
my
shoulder
-
length hair into a ponytail and decided to forgo the make-up.
I
would be fooling no one if
I
showed up downstairs in make-up.
My
jeans from last night and a pink
Save the Boobies
t-shirt to promote breast cancer awareness completed
my
look. It
wa
sn’t much of a look, but for God sakes, it was six in the morning. It’s hard to look good
that early.

As
I
ran down the stairs
,
thoughts kept running through
my
head and,
no matter how I looked at it
,
I
still couldn’t figure out why
Cooper
was here.
We
had a nice time last night, but not enough for him to come courting this early in the morning. Surely, this wasn’t a social call. As
I
got to the door and saw
Cooper
,
my
heart stopped for a minute.
Damn
, he was even good looking this early. He just set off the butterflies in
my
stomach. He was definitely the stereotype of tall, dark, and handsome
—j
ust the way
I
liked
them
. Slim legs turned into trim hips an
d the cutest butt ever. Yes, I
was a butt woman
—
a shameless hussy, but
I
loved every minute of it. The more
I
kept running into him
,
the more attractive he seemed to be getting. Or maybe
my
lack of sleep was just clouding
my
judgment and
my ability to control my
hormones.

As
my
gaze traveled upward,
I
was quickly jolted into the present by the hard look on
Cooper
’s face. This was most definitely not a social visit. The look on his face made that obvious. Confused,
I
quickly replayed the evening in my mind. I
hadn’t done anything between last night and this morning to piss him off.

“Why are you here?”
I
snapped, on the defensive without quite knowing why. Just the look on his face
took
away any good mood
I
had. Although at this time of the morning, it wasn’t difficult
to kill a good mood
.
Before that coffee hit my system, I rarely had a
coherent thought
or good mood at all
.

Ignoring
my tone
,
Cooper
retorted
, “Senator Daniels was found dead this morning. You were his last official appointment of the day yesterday, so I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Oh my God!”
My
hand flew up to
my
mouth, heart racing.
I didn’t know what I
expected him to say
,
but this sure wasn’t it.

My
dad,
standing with me, also
look
ed
stunned
. He
said, “Oh,
Cooper
, what a loss. How is Helen?”