Frost Security(19)

“Hey, Jess!” she shouted. “You home?”

I cringed a little in front of Richard. Karen Ray was, how do we say . . . unique? We reconnected after high school when she moved back into the area a year before to take care of her ailing mother. Both of us had run in the same circle, though she'd never been a cheerleader like me or Sheila (go Bears!). But we'd all hung out. In fact, she and Sheila had been besties before I’d returned home, reconnecting on their own after high school and college. Now we saw each other a lot. Sheila and I would go get drinks pretty frequently, and drive into the next town to see a movie every so often. But, while Sheila was down to earth despite her parent's wealth, Karen never really seemed to understand why I couldn't just take off for Vegas or New York for the weekend.

I counted to ten before opening the door with a loud, “Hey Karen!” on my lips. “What are you doing here, girl?”

“Just driving by,” she said, as she stepped into my entryway and gave me a big hug, “and saw you were home already.”

Karen was, to put it loosely, a bombshell of a blonde. I thought so, at least. Long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, with perfectly sculpted eyebrows I could never quite match, and beautifully full lips that always seemed to have the perfect amount of gloss. And, of course, none of it ever, ever, ever got on her perfectly white, straight teeth. She was the girl who, despite never being on the cheerleading squad, always seemed to date the quarterback and get elected Prom Queen.

How we were friends, I had no idea. But, we were, and I hugged her back as she tried to strangle the life from me with her love. Maybe we were friends because of Sheila? I didn’t know.

Richard chose that moment to step out of the kitchen, and Karen looked over at him, breaking our embrace. “Well, who do we have here?” Karen asked, her voice brightening up as she glanced from my security blanket to me. I tracked her eyes as they looked down at his left hand. “Company, I take it?”

He smiled, scratched the back of his head a little, as if he were uneasy. I realized then that the only thing he knew to do was to avoid having Karen think he was a one man security detail for me. “I'm, uh, Richard Murdoch, I'm, uh-”

“My friend,” I interjected, stepping around Karen and going to his side, putting my arm around his waist.

He stiffened up for a brief moment, then seemed to relax into my touch.

“We, ahem, just recently met.”

Karen's eyes widened a little as he reflexively put his arm around my shoulders, pulled me close, a smile forming on his lips as I glanced up at him. “Yeah. Just, you know, met.”

I almost melted from that arm around my shoulders, too. It was just so warm and protective. I breathed deep, inhaling his smell for the first time from so close, his deodorant and his general manly musk. I shivered a little, smiling despite knowing that this was all just an act. “And I was just about to cook him my spaghetti Bolognese for the first time,” I added, knowing exactly what I was insinuating.

I mean, I didn't want to lie to her. Karen was my friend, after all. But, at the same time, I didn't want her getting wrapped up in all this death threat business. Sheila was already kind of involved in it, I guess, but why should it all spin out of control and pull my entire life into it? Karen didn't deserve that, did she? But, besides that, there was something inside me that screamed for me to be protective of Richard. Especially against Karen. She'd jump on any man moving, as long as he had two legs, and a, well . . . you know.

“Well,” Karen said, nodding and smiling, “guess I'll leave you two to start supper, then.”

I reluctantly broke away from Richard's embrace and crossed the room to her. “Well, it was good of you to stop by,” I said, pulling her into another hug. “Sorry we couldn't chat longer.”

She laughed. “Don't mind me, honey. I was just going to see if you wanted to go into town to grab a drink, anyways.” She squeezed me tight. “But, since you're occupied, I figure I'll just give Sheila a call.”

We broke our hug.

“Richard,” Karen said, “lovely to meet you. You two should call me sometime soon, we can all go out for dinner.”

“Uh, yeah,” Richard agreed with a smile. “Sounds good. Sure, sometime soon.”

And with that, she was gone, her designer boots crunching on loose rocks of the walkway, then tramping through the gravel.

“Well,” my security blanket said after a moment, “that was interesting.” She got in her BMW, shut the door behind her, then seemed to wait for a moment.

“Sorry about that,” I said, making a face. “I just didn't, you know, want her pulled into this whole thing. That's all.”