Be My Baby Tonight (20 page)

Tim snagged the ball out of the air, palmed
it a few times, then sent it winging back at his brother. “You’re
going to think I’m nuts, but it wasn’t that she’d gotten so pretty,
and with that great body, and all. It was the smile, Jack, and how
we could just sit down and talk after all those years, just like
we’d never been apart.”

He grabbed the ball low, spinning in a
circle, pretending Jack’s velocity had forced him into that spin,
and threw it back with equal force. “Not that I’m complaining about
the rest of it, you understand.”

Jack caught the ball, kept it in the glove,
and walked toward his brother. “So. You’re crazy about Suzanna’s
smile. You like talking about the good old days. God, Tim, would
you listen to me? Are we really old enough to even
have
good
old days? I guess so.”

“We’re getting to current events now, right?
To my nightmares? The Trehan curse?”

“Nope. Those are water under the bridge, as
Aunt Sadie would say. Now you have to figure out what you’re going
to do next. And
why
you’re going to do it. That’s most
important, bro, the
why
of it. Answer carefully, Tim,
because otherwise, I’m not going to help you.”

They put the gloves and ball back on the
shelf in the garage and headed up the hill once more, toward the
house.

“I was wrong,” Tim said, collecting his
thoughts. “Wrong not to tell her, wrong to take advantage of her,
wrong to be so stupid as to believe in something as dumb as a
curse, or superstition, or whatever the hell I was thinking.”

“That’s a good start. Keep going.”

“We’re great together. I mean, you can’t
spend your life talking about high school. I’m not dumb enough to
believe that one. But we always got along; we were always friends.
Who would have believed what happened when I kissed her? I mean, I
just about fell apart. There was this spark... no, this
blaze.
I mean, I couldn’t get enough of her.”

“Talk slowly, bro. Keely is going to want the
details.”

“Hey, this is brother to brother. Keep the
women out of it, okay? Aren’t I already suffering enough?”

“All right, but only if you say the right
thing. Because then I’ll be in just as deep as you, and Keely would
murder me if I told her that I told you what I might tell you.”

Tim stopped, looked at Jack. “You know, we’re
twins. We have twin-speak, always have. We can talk in shorthand to
each other, understand each other better than most people. But I’ll
be damned if I can figure out what you just said.”

“Just answer one question, Tim. Don’t avoid
it, don’t twist it, just answer it, because it’s important. Do you
love her?”

Tim rubbed at his forehead. “Yeah. I love
her.”

“Okay, same question, part two. Are you
in
love with her?”

Tim nodded. “Yeah. That, too. I’m about as
sloppy about Suze as a person can get, and I’m not ashamed of
it.”

His brother slapped him on the back, sending
Tim stumbling forward a few feet. “Well, okay then. I hereby
declare myself a free agent, and I’m ready to sign with your team,
Tim, if the price is right.”

“Should we call Mort out here?” Tim asked,
shaking his head. “He does handle all our contracts. I’m sure I saw
him in the kitchen, scarfing up potato chips.”

“We don’t need him for this one. Mostly, I’m
only going to tell you what you already know. You can’t expect
Suzanna to forgive you right away. Hell, you’re just lucky she’s
agreed to go home, not stay in the guest room.”

“She did?” Hope flared in Tim’s chest.

“Don’t get too happy, bro. I heard her
telling Keely that she’s already moved all of your stuff into
another bedroom. She likes the tester bed, or whatever it is, and
figures you don’t deserve it.”

“So I’ve been tossed out?”

“Not all the way out, Tim. You’re still in
the house. Be grateful for small favors. Keel would have thrown my
stuff on the lawn, then set fire to it and invited the neighbors
over for a marshmallow roast. Now, to continue?”

Tim made a motion with his hand. “Be my
guest.”

“You did a lousy thing, Tim. A selfish thing.
And, being you, you pretty much landed on your feet for a while
there. Without knowing it, you married exactly the right woman, for
exactly the wrong reasons. In other words, every dog has its day,
and you’ve had plenty of them—but not today, bro, because this time
you royally screwed up. And now you’re going to have to earn your
way back into her trust.”

“Lay siege to the castle of her heart. Heard
it already. That message has been delivered.”

“I figured it was. So, my last question. This
is the big one, Tim, for all the marbles. Are you going to do what
everyone feels you should do? Court Suzanna? Convince her that you
love her? Eat some crow, do some groveling, pay for your mistake?
Take it slow, take it easy, give her what you stole from her,
flying her off to Vegas like that? If it takes weeks? Even if it
takes
months
?”

Tim nodded. “I already know that telling her
I love her is only going to get her mad. She wouldn’t believe me,
and I can’t blame her.” Then he frowned. “Months?”

“But you’ll stick it out? Even if it does
take months? Hell, you’re lucky it probably won’t take years, even
luckier that she even seems willing to give you a chance.”

“Cold showers, right. Candy and flowers, got
it. Courting?” He made a face. “How am I going to do that one?”

“I have no idea, Tim. And now, because you
answered my questions the way I hoped, and because you’re looking
so pitiful, here’s a little present. Something the girls don’t want
you to know, something you can’t let
anyone
know you know.
But you’re my brother, and I can’t go along with that one. You’re
two-for-three for the game, Tim, and at two-for-three, I don’t
think you have to worry about being injured anymore. Two-for-three
is more than you’ve ever done in our follow-the-twin game.”

“Two-for-three? Are you telling me—?”

“Yup. Suzanna’s pregnant. That’s why she ran
off, to toss her cookies. Morning sickness, Tim, and as I’ve found
out, that doesn’t just hit women in the morning. And it sure
doesn’t make women always feel all warm and cozy about the man who
gets none of the problems, but just gets to hand out cigars. You’re
going to be a daddy, bro. Welcome to my world.”

“Pregnant?
Pregnant
? And that...
You’re saying that’s why she...?”

“You got it, Ace. Just remember, you’ve got
to play dumb here. Well, dumber than usual, bro. You can’t let her
know you know.”

Jack chuckled softly, patted his brother on
the shoulder, and walked away, heading into the house, leaving Tim
to stand there, unconsciously rubbing at his own stomach.

* * *

Suzanna watched Tim as he pulled a can of
beer from the refrigerator, grabbed a piece of cold, rare roast
beef; and rolled it in one slice of rye bread, then headed into the
den.

Most of the guests were outside now, as Aunt
Sadie had asked them all to come see her birthday present to
herself, a brand-new, compact four-by-four in bright blue. With
racing stripes and a bright yellow Tweetie Bird painted on the
hood, a Sylvester the Cat painted splatted against the
tailgate.

Aunt Sadie knew how to enjoy life.

It was too late to go with them, so Suzanna
just sat there, waiting for Tim to join her.

“You should eat more than that,” she told him
as he sat down beside her on the couch. “Keely made enough food to
feed a small army.”

He chewed on his half sandwich, swallowed,
then said, “This is just an appetizer. I’m having filet of crow for
my main course. How are you, Suze? Contact a hit man yet? Maybe
Joey could help you out there.”

She gratefully grabbed on to the subject of
Joey Morretti.
“Joe
is taking courses at his local community
college. Criminology.”

She beat on Tim’s back as he choked on the
last bite of sandwich.

“Joey is taking classes in crim—criminology?
He wants to be a cop? Now, there’s a switch. If you can’t join ’em,
beat ’em, is that it?”

“I think it’s very good for him. Keely told
me all about how Joe had a few problems, how his sister got all
their parents’ attention, so that Joe sort of drifted into some...
some small fantasy about joining the Mafia. He just wanted
attention, that’s all. Someone to notice him.”

“Suze, Joey’s been a weirdo from day one. He
threw my new mitt in the toilet when I was about ten. I almost made
him dive in after it, but my dad stopped me.”

Suzann nodded. “Obviously he tried to get
your attention, too.”

“Oh, really? Let me take a wild guess here.
You took some psych courses in California? Bet those La-La-Land
wackos put a hell of a spin on that stuff.”

“For your information, I found the courses
very enlightening. Especially those on being an enabler. Oh, and in
case your east coast university didn’t cover that, that means I
should have let you either get in trouble or do your own damn
English homework.”

He took a sip of beer, then looked at her
closely. “Is it easier to fight about stuff that happened long ago
than to talk about what happened to us since we met up again?”

“I don’t know,” she said, blinking back
tears. “I may have to start with kindergarten, and the day you
talked me into eating paste, and work up from there. Unless you
think it would be easier for us to just get a divorce.”

“No divorce, Suze. I’m going to make it up to
you, for all of it. I promise.”

“All right,” she said, inwardly rejoicing,
even as she wondered if, even with Tim’s best intentions, they
would ever be able to get past what he’d done. “Just as long as you
know you’ll be making it up to me from the guest room.”

She could feel his eyes on her as she stood
up, walked away. She even heard him as he muttered, “Kindergarten?
Cripes. It’s gonna be one hell of a long siege.”

And she smiled. He was so adorable.

She still wanted to kill him. He didn’t even
ask if she felt better. Did he think only of himself? Or was he
trying to save her embarrassment?

Maybe she didn’t know Tim as well as she’d
always thought she did.

* * *

“So I reminded him about the paste in
kindergarten. How he tricked me into eating some.”

Jack nodded, then forked more of Keely’s
great chocolate cake into his mouth. “I remember that one.”

“But what you probably don’t remember, and
I’m sure Tim doesn’t remember, is that I liked the taste of it. I
ate paste through at least the second grade.”

Jack laughed. “So, Suzanna, is this the plan?
To drag up every stupid, selfish thing Tim ever did and make him
apologize for it, pay for it?”

Suzanna shook her head. “No. It isn’t as if
he was holding a gun to my head. I wanted to be near him, and I’d
have done just about anything to accomplish that.”

“That’s another thing,” Jack said, waggling
the fork at her. “Why Tim? Why not me?”

“What do you mean, why not you?”

“Well, hey, we look alike. Remember those old
reruns of that TV show Patty Duke was in? The look-alike cousins?
How did it go?”

“Oh, I remember. There was this theme
song...?”

“Yeah. Dressed alike, and what else? They
walked alike, at times they even talked alike? That was Tim and me,
until we could finally talk Mom out of dressing us the same. But,
back then, we were pretty interchangeable. Just two dumb kids. Was
it because of the alphabet? First in the row, Jack Trehan. Second,
Tim Trehan. Followed by one Suzanna Trent. I guess what I’m asking
is, if I’d been named Walter, or something, would that have changed
anything?”

Suzanna took a bite of her own slice of cake.
She’d gone from feeling sick to wanting to eat everything in the
kitchen. How long had it been since she’d tasted homemade, baked
from scratch chocolate cake? Years and years.

“No, Jack, that wouldn’t have changed
anything. I’ve always liked you, but it was always Tim who caught
my attention. With his silliness, his mad dash through life, the
scrapes he’d get himself into all the time, then get back out of
again without a scratch. His confidence in himself, even his
arrogance. Always Tim.”

“Interesting. Keely says she likes Tim,
thinks he’s a riot and a nice guy, but if she had to live with him,
she’d probably have to put a large dose of rat poison in his cereal
within a month.”

“So you’re not as alike as you think you
are,” Suzanna said, smiling. “Keely and I are your proof.”

“I guess so. Everybody always points out our
similarities. You and Keely see the differences. Interesting.”

“I told Tim that you’re the angel, and he’s
the devil.”

“The angel? That sounds boring.”

“Not to Keely,” Suzanna reminded him.

His grin was sheepish as he watched Keely
walk by, Candy on her hip, or what pregnancy had left her of her
hip. “Yeah. She’s crazy about me.”

Suzanna rolled her eyes. “And there’s one of
the similarities. You’re both so damn cocksure of yourselves,
although it was always Tim who, I could tell, would never even
conceive
of the idea of ever failing at anything he tried to
do. I always envied that.”

Jack looked at her for a long moment. “You do
know that you’re beautiful, don’t you? That you’re smart, you’re
talented, have a great heart—all that good stuff?”

Suzanna shrugged, feeling the flush of
embarrassment rising in her cheeks. “Let’s just say I’m one of
those people who looks in the mirror and still sees teeth braces,
baby fat, and a bunch of silly romantic dreams that had a
snowball’s chance in hell of ever coming true.”

“You still feel that way?”

“I hadn’t been, not for a lot of years, ever
since college, I guess. And when Tim looked at me, seemed to
want
me, I was so... so... And then I found out
why,
and I just...”