The Home Court Advantage (21 page)

“Sure. She probably won’t have what we need, though, so we’ll stop off at a market before we get Bruno.”

“Wow! You know where we can buy uncooked food? You’re like a survivalist!” I joked. “So, any ideas for relieving my tension?” I asked lasciviously. Against the odds the smile had broken through and I went back to packing files much more gently.

“Chocolate.”

“Chocolate? That’s your only suggestion?” I asked, looking up at him quizzically.

“You’ll see,” he said with a naughty smile.

That evening, after eating our usual take-out and giving Bruno his supper and a bacon flavored chewy treat, Braden gathered together the ingredients he had picked up for dessert. We were going to dip strawberries in melted chocolate, which seemed to be easy enough even for people with our limited cooking experience. I personally thought it sounded quite yummy too. That probably really would cheer me up. It turned out to be very yummy indeed. We sat down at the table with a couple of plates, bowl of strawberries and a pan of melted chocolate. I went first and dipped my strawberry but I got chocolate on my fingers. I licked it off so it wouldn’t drip all over the place.

“Mmm! This is good!” I looked up at Braden who was watching me intently. It was starting to dawn on me why he had suddenly felt the culinary urge.

“It looks good,” he said in a slightly husky voice. “You missed some, though.” He took my hand and licked the rest of the chocolate off of my finger. My breath hitched and I swallowed hard. He dipped his own strawberry and bit into it while giving me a really hot look. He started to lick the chocolate off of his own fingers but I took his hand, popped his finger into my mouth, swirled my tongue around and pulled it out slowly, never taking my eyes off him. I saw his breathing get heavier and his eyes get darker.

“You taste really good.” I smiled and raised my eyebrows provocatively. I picked up another strawberry, dipped it in the chocolate and bit into it.

“Uh oh. You got a little bit right there…” he leaned over and licked chocolate from the corner of my mouth. You can probably figure out where this was going. “You’re delicious,” he said seductively. “I wonder how this would taste on other parts of you.”

He pulled me up and guided me over to stand in front of him. He pushed my top up to expose my tummy and I held it there. Then he dipped one of his fingers in the chocolate and swirled around my belly button. I started feeling flushed and breathing faster. He leaned in and began licking the chocolate off of me, which incidentally, felt incredibly good and looked amazingly erotic. Suddenly Bruno gave a yip and headed for the door, which was already opening as Cam and Jess came in.

“We can go to my place!” Cam said, immediately assessing the situation, and preparing to vacate the premises. Jess had a slightly surprised and very amused look on her face.

“No! You don’t have to leave,” I said, pulling down my shirt and desperately trying to reclaim a shred of dignity. “I just got some chocolate on me and Braden was helping me get it off,” I said, as if it were completely normal that someone would get chocolate on their stomach and their companion would help them clean it up with his tongue.

“Just let us quickly clean up in here,” Braden said. “Don’t let us get in your way and don’t leave on our account. We’re just planning to hang out tonight.” I guess he meant as opposed to having chocolate-covered sex in the kitchen.

“Okay,” Jess said, looking like she was trying not to laugh. “We were going to go for a drink after dinner but we changed our minds. I probably should have called.”

“That’s okay. It’s no big deal,” Braden reassured her.

“We were just going to hang out too,” Cam added. “Do you mind if …”

“No! Of course not,” I said, smiling in what I imagined was probably a rather maniacal way. I probably looked like a crazed Oompa Loompa.

They headed off to Jess’s room while she changed out of her work clothes. As soon as they were out of earshot Braden and I turned to each other.

“Good thing they weren’t a few minutes later.” He smiled.

“Yeah, or they might have seen chocolate with nuts.”

“Oh, that was bad,” he said, but he still laughed.

Later, the four of us sat in the living room talking and snuggling on opposite couches. Bruno was contentedly nestled with Braden and me as I petted him and Braden scratched him behind the ears. Incidentally, that was Chihuahua paradise. He kept sniffing at my tummy though, which was rather disconcerting. Not to mention an embarrassing reminder of earlier events. I kept subtly shooing him away.

“So what’s up with Adam lately?” Jess asked.

“I know. He seems distracted and cranky,” I agreed.

“He might just be a little stressed out,” Braden offered. “Mark mentioned that he wasn’t going out as much lately for some reason, so I guess he’s not unwinding a lot.” That would make sense. Adam was cranky because he wasn’t getting laid. The question was why.

“Maybe he needs a vacation,” Cam suggested.

“Oh wait! I almost forgot,” I said excitedly, sitting up and dashing into the other room. I came back holding the Metro, a little free newspaper that people picked up from stacks all over the city. “Look!” I handed the paper to Jess and she looked at the page I had opened it to.

“September is a popular month at Overbrook Lodge,” she read and then started skimming the article. “On the 28th of this month every year they have a conference for a group called The Truth Seekers. It says that ‘some may call them conspiracy theorists but they consider themselves people who have opened their minds to the fact that not everything is as it seems. They are most well known for their belief that politicians and powerful businessmen have been working together for decades to cover up evidence of extraterrestrial visitation’.” She read silently again for a moment and then summarized. “A flying saucer was allegedly spotted near there one September back in the forties and the aliens supposedly made contact and said they would return on that day in … ‘an upcoming year’,” she said.

“Well, that narrows it down,” Braden said with a laugh.

“Did you hear that? This is a group of local conspiracy theorists who specifically think that
politicians
and
businessmen
are working together to cover up the truth about UFO’s!” I looked around at the faces staring back at me blankly. Okay, they weren’t getting it.

“So?” Cameron asked finally.

“Politicians and businessmen. Working together. Conspiracy theorists?” Did I have to spell it out? How much clearer could it be? “Look, Braden and I both feel like someone is following us and watching us, and it’s gotten worse since our parents announced our engagement. Felicity said that someone was threatened by the idea of our fathers working together. I think maybe this guy may be a Truth Seeker!”

“What would he hope to gain by following you?” Cam asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he thinks we’ll slip up and show him where the alien autopsies are done. These people have their own sense of reality.”

“Okay, so say you’re right and whoever is following you is part of this group. What are you going to do about it?” Jess asked.

“We’re going to go and confront him once and for all,” I answered emphatically.

“We?” Jess asked, looking like she already knew the answer to that question.

“Well, I think we should all go but you don’t have to, of course. It could be a fun trip though! It’s out in rural Bucks County, PA.”

“Oh perfect,” Braden said. “Out in the middle of the woods with UFO enthusiasts. Maybe we should save that trip for our honeymoon, sweetheart.”

“Gabrielle, don’t you think that maybe this is pretty far-fetched?” Jess asked. “I mean, just because these people are conspiracy theorists, and Felicity
may
have been warning you to watch out for conspiracy theorists …”

“And they believe that businessmen, like my father, and politicians, like Braden’s father, are plotting together. And someone is
following
me and it’s starting to drive me nuts,” I answered, feeling exasperated. “I don’t have any other ideas, Jess. I’m desperate, and anything seems worth a shot. It’s pretty late notice, though. I wonder if they’re booked up.”

“Somehow I doubt it,” Cam said.

“So what do we need?” I asked, going over and firing up my laptop. “A bedroom for you guys and one for us and we’ll need to take Adam or Mark or both.”

“What would possibly make you think they would be willing to go to a gathering of UFO Enthusiasts in rural Bucks County?” Cam asked me.

“Yeah, I’m not sure
I’m
willing to go to this,” Braden added.

“Aren’t you curious?” I asked him.

“About what? Felicity’s conspiracy theorist, or whether the Mother-ship will finally be returning this year?” Braden asked with a smile.

“Both,” I said. “Come on, it’ll be fun. Oh hey! It says there’s also legends about ghosts at the Lodge! This place is haunted!”

“Oh great!” Braden laughed. “This just gets better and better.”

“Is Jack Nicholson the caretaker?” Cam asked, which made Braden crack up even more.

“That hotel was called the Overlook,” I pointed out. Although I had to admit that in the picture I was looking at it did resemble the hotel in The Shining a little.

“Gabrielle, not to rain on your parade, honey,” Jess said, “but if there really is a conspiracy theorist, who isn’t too psyched about your wedding plans, couldn’t it be dangerous to go hang out with him in the middle of the woods?”

“Yeah, if there really is some crazy guy watching you and following you around maybe it’s not a great idea to go socialize with him and all of his friends.”

“And what are we going to do if we find him, Gabrielle?” Braden asked. “Ask him to take us to his leader? Cross-examine him?”

“I’m tired of us being spied on and followed, honey. I want to confront this guy once and for all and tell him to leave us the hell alone. We’ll tell him that our dads aren’t hiding any spaceships or little green men so he should go find Elvis or something instead.”

“You should be excited, Braden!” Jess teased. “You’ve never been included in one of Gabrielle’s crazy schemes before. Well, other than Club 51, and that was tame by her standards.”

“Yeah, wait, is Ricky allowed to come along on Lucy’s adventures?” Cam asked.

“Are Fred and Ethel definitely coming?” Braden asked.

“We wouldn’t miss it, honey.” Jess laughed. “I want to see a UFO!”

“I’m just in it for the ghosts,” Cam said.

“Hey wait,” Braden said looking at me, “hotel sex. Okay, I’m in.”

“So we definitely need at least three rooms then, maybe four.”

“I think Mark’s ten year high school reunion is this weekend,” Cam said.

“Yeah, it is,” Braden agreed. “He’s been talking about it for a while. No way will he miss that to go to a UFO gathering.”

“Well that leaves Adam. Like Cam said, maybe he needs a little vacation.”

“I was thinking more like a trip to the Caribbean, not to a haunted lodge in the middle of the woods,” Cam noted.

“Everybody goes to the Caribbean. It’ll give him something different to do.”

“There’s a reason everybody goes to the Caribbean, baby,” Braden said. “The Caribbean is fun. Rural Bucks County? Not so much.”

“And speaking of doing something different,” I went on, ignoring them, “Jess you’ve been saying that Lily should get out more often. Maybe we should invite her too.”

“I meant go out on a date or something. Not go hunt UFOs,” she said.

“Maybe it will give her some ideas for a thriller. I would ask Beth too, but I know she’s going out of town this weekend,” I said distractedly.

“If Lily goes does that mean that Adam won’t?” Jess asked.

“We won’t tell him.” Braden laughed.

“He’s getting sneaky,” Jess teased. “Gabrielle’s definitely rubbing off on him.”

I checked out the accommodations at Overbrook and found out that while the Lodge itself was full there was still one last four bedroom “luxury cabin” available.

“Um, I don’t know,” Cam responded when I shared that news. “I’m not sure that the words ‘luxury’ and ‘cabin’ actually belong together.”

“Yeah, I agree, Gabrielle,” Braden chimed in. “It’s kind of like saying ‘luxury tent’ or ‘luxury cot’.”