You Know Who - Robin L. Deeter (books for new readers .TXT) 📗

them off with tap water. The Mountie smiled and tapped his temple in approval. Music began to pound, Ray began to dance and Ben began to laugh. Dancing into the living room, Ray handed Jessie her drink. Once they drank them, Ray twirled Jessie and maneuvered her around the living room. Jessie was pleasantly surprised at how well Ray danced. He was quite graceful.
Jessie could feel the alcohol set in and didn’t try to fight it. She didn’t drink much so it affected her quicker than it would someone who did. After a couple of fast songs, Ray put on some slower tunes. Jessie started to yawn. The dancing had taken her mind off alcohol which was Ray’s plan. Jessie laid her head on Ray’s shoulder. It was comforting to have him rocking her back and forth. Sorrow replaced her anger. When she began crying, Ray tightened his arms around her, soothing her. Jessie’s tears faded and she drifted into a half-doze.
Watching Ray putting Jessie to sleep, Fraser admired Ray’s cleverness. Ray’s blue eyes were stormy whenever they meet his and Fraser had the feeling that the ride to his place was going to be a noisy one. Discerning that Jessie was almost asleep on her feet, Ray picked her up, carried her to her room and laid her down gently on her bed. He covered her with just a sheet since the night was so warm.
Fraser and Ray turned out the lights after putting things away in the kitchen. Quietly they left, locking the door behind them. They argued on the way to Fraser’s about whether Jessie’s Ray had done the right thing or not. Arriving at an impasse they agreed to leave the subject alone.

Chapter Eleven

Armando Langoustine was relieved to return “home” to the adobe mansion. It had been a long night at the casino with an abundance of business to be done. Afterwards he’d had a meeting with his handler to bring him up to date and strategize. It was quarter to four when he walked through the front door. Nero the butler must have been alerted that Armando was coming home. The gray-haired servant waited in the front hall.
“I’ve taken the liberty of serving your buttermilk in your room, sir.”
Armando offered a tired smile. “Thanks. I gotta get some sleep. Make sure nobody bothers me until ten, ok?”
“Yes, sir.”
Upon entering the master bedroom, Armando slipped away and Ray came out of the box he’d been kept in all day. Ray figured that this was what it must be like for people with multiple personalities. For a while you’re one person and then you’re someone else. He undressed and sat on the bed. His buttermilk awaited on the nightstand.
He reached for it, taking a healthy swig. Benny didn’t care for it, he remembered with a wry smile. The Mountie had refused to drink it, an expression of revulsion on his face. Jessie had tasted it and declared it disgusting. Thinking of her brought to mind the last message he’d sent her.
Ray, I think it was a mistake, Benny’s voice echoed in his mind.
“I had to do it. I could be here for God knows how long and it wouldn’t be fair to keep her tied down. She should be able to live her life.”
But her life is with you, Ray. In her heart and mind, you’re all she wants.
“Well what am I supposed to do about it?” He laid his head in his hands. “This is bad, very bad. I’m talking to an empty room listening to a Mountie that only I can hear.” Ray pictured the diamond solitaire ring he’d hidden in a dresser drawer in the Vecchio house. He hadn’t been able to propose before he left and his emotions on the subject were mixed.
On one hand he was glad that he hadn’t asked the big question because this way she wasn’t prevented from moving on with her life but on the other it ripped him apart to think of her with someone else. Why couldn’t he let her go? Wasn’t time supposed to fix everything? It wasn’t doing the trick in this case. He found that his love for Jessie hadn’t diminished at all. Oh, he’d tried to forget, done everything he could think of to get her out of his system. Drinking didn’t help and he wouldn’t consume enough alcohol to get trashed because it might loosen his tongue. He’d even gone on a couple of dates but was left so cold by the women that he hadn’t even wanted to kiss them. Besides, he’d felt as if he were cheating the whole time.
Finishing his buttermilk, Ray lay down. Weary as his body was, his mind only let him achieve an uneasy sleep where images of his old life played like a slideshow.

After the summer night when Ray had danced Jessie to sleep, she grew closer to him. He became another brother figure to her like Fraser only easier to convince or coerce into juvenile behavior. When he was a smart ass to her, Jessie never failed to mete out justice in the form of a dead leg or withholding coffee. The first time Jessie had given him a dead leg he’d punched her back out of reflex since her move was so unexpected.
She’d fallen to the floor, Fraser kneeling to make sure she was ok. Her body shook and he thought she was crying but when she rolled over she was laughing so hard that the spasms were silent. Fraser was furious and would have risen to her defense but she stopped him.
“It’s my own fault, Ben. I only got what I deserved,” she said and dissolved into more laughter. Ray had apologized profusely, feeling terrible, but she’d waved him away. “I’m just so used to Fraser never hitting me back that I didn’t give it a second thought.”
“Yeah, well I don’t ever hit women,” Ray said. “You just surprised me.”
“Ray, it’s fine, really and it was sort of fun, in a twisted kind of way. Feel free to retaliate any time.”
“I don’t think so.” But he did retaliate; with practical jokes.
One morning she couldn’t open her middle desk drawer. It was sealed with Superglue. When Ray saw her coming into the squad room looking fit to kill he’d quickly gotten up and gone to the men’s room. In exchange for coffee Ray told her dirty jokes. When Ray pleased her in some way she would pat his spiky hair but when anyone else tried it they were quickly put in their place.
Fraser and Jessie still played chess but when Ray was around they opted to play Scrabble so all three could play at once. Ray was a terrible cheater and tried to get away with creating crazy words that came with even more absurd definitions. Fraser never let him get away with it even though Jessie was tempted to give him points for creativity.
A moment came that solidified Jessie and Ray’s friendship. No sooner had Fraser and Ray come through her kitchen door when she whipped the keys to the Vette at Ray.
“Think fast!”
They hit him in the chest. “Ow!”
“I’m sorry!” Jessie picked up the keys while Ray rubbed his chest. “I really thought you’d catch them. Here,” she dropped them into his palm.
He looked down at them, then back up at her, his electric blue eyes doubtful. “Really? You’re sure?”
Jessie nodded. “Have fun.”
He jogged out to the garage, the sound of him peeling out of the driveway following his departure. Jessie found that she had stopped thinking of him as “this Ray”. He was now just Ray.
Despite the appearance of Jessie’s improved state of mind on the outside, Fraser could still see the anger and hurt in her eyes when she thought no one was paying attention. Ray could relate since he was still in love with his ex-wife, Stella. He and Jessie started talking about their respective relationship problems. Jessie never discussed her anger with Frannie because she couldn’t mention the letter to any of the Vecchios for fear that they hadn’t received communication from Ray. She would do nothing to hurt them.
Ray didn’t understand how Vecchio could expect her to just move on and Jessie felt that Stella should give things with Ray another try.
“Don’t be too hard on Stella, Jessie. There’s a lot of history there and I can be a lot to take.” He shrugged. “It’s a long story.”
Jessie had taken his hand. “If you ever want to tell it, I’ll listen.”
Smiling sadly, Ray said, “I’ll remember that.”

Fall arrived bringing bitter temperatures with it. The Vecchio house had been restored and the holidays brought a bevy of parties at the family home. Jessie organized a Canadian Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October in Ben’s honor which brought tears to the Mountie’s eyes. The American Thanksgiving followed in November with Christmas in December. That day was somewhat lackluster because everyone was missing Ray.
In the kitchen, his mother cried as she told Jessie that she had bought presents for Ray to open when he returned home. She missed her Raymundo terribly. Jessie tried to comfort her as best she could but there was little she could say to help.
Jessie went upstairs to use the bathroom. On the way down she slipped into Ray’s room. The fire department had arrived before much structure damage was done to the house all those months ago. Most of the harm had been done by smoke and water. The downstairs had gotten the worst of it while the upstairs had largely been spared. Mrs. Vecchio had insisted on leaving Ray’s room intact despite Frannie’s petition to switch rooms since Ray’s was bigger than hers.
Several pictures sat on his dresser, his smiling face gazing out at her. Her favorite was one of Frannie and him hugging, looking like they were in the middle of a laugh. Ray’s eyes were greener in the sunlight. It must have been summer when the picture was snapped since both he and Frannie were wearing short sleeved shirts. Both siblings tended to dress on the flashy side and Ray’s blue and yellow Bermuda shirt was a testimony to that fact.
“Oh, Ray, I miss you so much. I’m so pissed at you,” she told him as she picked up the photograph. “Don’t you know that I love you too much to do what you think I should?” She kissed the glass over his face and replaced it on the dresser.
The scent of his cologne lingered in the room. Jessie opened Ray’s closet and stepped inside and wrapped her arms gently around several of the suits that hung there and inhaled deeply, imagining that she was embracing the man the suits belonged to. Not wanting to wrinkle them, Jessie let them go and left the closet and Ray’s room.
When she rejoined the family, Fraser gave her an odd look from across the living room. Sending him a sheepish smile, Jessie started playing with Maria’s children