Chapter 32

Jack looked at the house. "I guess we should make an appearance."

"I want to take our stuff upstairs. I'm sure Bozo needs to get out."

"You're right. He's been up there since this morning."

Jack got the door but there was no mad scramble to get down the stairs. I felt a hard knot in my chest as my first thought was that something must have happened to him. It must have shown on my face because Jack said, "I'm sure he's downstairs in the house."

I took my bag into our room, then went up front and checked his rug and the bathroom. Jack was waiting at the front door when I got back.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into him, kissing me on the forehead as he guided me out the door.

We opened the kitchen door and the room was empty. We heard people talking and went out into the hall and around the corner to the dining room. Mom, Mary and Rudolfo were eating dinner. Bozo was sitting next to Rudolfo, resting his head on his lap, his eyes closed as Rudolfo idly scratched under his ear. He opened his eyes a bit and his tail thumped a few times when he saw me.

"You stupid dog. You had me scared to death."

He looked back at me, thumped his tail a couple more times, then closed his eyes again.

Mary said, "We let him out and he didn't want to be all by himself. We let him in so he wouldn't feel lonely."

I saw something move when I looked over at her. Dino was under the table. He glanced at me then lowered his head, his chin on Mary's feet.

Jack went over to Rudolfo and held out his hand. They shook hands and said hello to each other and then I said Hi to him as well.

Mom asked what was happening.

"I have to go up to the apartment and work on my web site for the team. I want to finish tonight if I can and it's going to be a lot of work."

"Do you want to take some food up with you now or do you want me to send something up later?"

"I guess I'll take it up now so I won't be interrupted once I start working."

"You know, Jill, it would probably save you time if you just took a few minutes and ate it here. That way you don't have to worry about dishes and cleaning your kitchen table. Nobody's going to complain about you eating quickly and taking off."

"All right. That makes sense. Let me go wash my hands."

Jack and I both went into the kitchen and used the sink.

He took the towel from me. "Are you OK?"

"Stupid dog."

"Come on, Jill. We both know Rudolfo's a charmer and Bozo's a sucker for anyone who will scratch his ears. Are you willing to give him a lot of affection tonight?"

"I can't. I have to do the web page."

"And I have to go do the locker room. Let him have his attention. He'll be back later tonight."

"I don't know. What if Rudolfo spends the night?"

He swatted me on the butt. "If he spends the night, it won't be to scratch your dog's ears."

Mom came in and went over to the stove. She had some spaghetti going in big pot of water and she grabbed a piece and tested it. She pulled a colander from the dish rack, put it in the sink and poured the pasta into it.

"OK. Spaghetti's here, the sauce is in that pot. There's some garlic bread in the oven and the rest of the stuff is on the table. You two help yourselves and I'll get back to my guest."

Jack said, "Where's Sara tonight?"

"Sara moved out this afternoon."

"Really? Where did she go?"

"Later, Jack. I have company. When we can sit down and talk, we will." She held onto his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek.

Jack went to the cupboard and got out a couple of plates. He had a red smudge on his face where Mom kissed him. I wet a paper towel and scrubbed it off. "Mom looks good tonight."

"Yeah. She's in stealth seduction mode, that's for sure."

I could see what he was talking about. All the parts were classy, subdued, even. But when you put them all together, they added up to one desirable lady.

Her hair had been washed and conditioned. Don't get me wrong — Mom's no slouch when it comes to her hair. But today, she'd spent that extra twenty minutes to convert what was usually attractive into spectacular. Deep and full, the normally hidden auburn tints brought its deep brown luster to life. Her makeup looked flawless, just enough to enhance her natural look without covering it up. Her lipstick was a deep red, reminiscent of black without going quite that far. The combination of the dark lipstick and her shampoo ad-like hair was startling. She was wearing a pair of gray woolen slacks that flowed with her curves. A darker gray cowl-neck sweater topped it off. It didn't mold to her breasts but it didn't hide them, by any means. She wore a pair of black leather shoes with one inch heels — long enough to firm up the backs of her legs and her butt without making her look like a bimbo. I was reminded of a jaguar the way she seemed to flow out of the kitchen.

The meat sauce was the all day kind. It was in a cast iron pot large enough to bathe a baby and three puppies in with the gas burner barely flickering underneath. I could smell the fresh tomatoes, garlic, onions and all the herbs and spices that had been cooking for hours. There were good sized chunks of sausage and meatballs the size of your fist at the bottom of the pot. I covered the pasta on both our plates with sauce, then gave Jack a scoop of sausage and a couple of meatballs. I was a little less generous with the meat on my plate. The last time I'd scarfed up the meatballs, I hardly made it up the stairs before I conked out for the night. I had too much going on to put myself to sleep over a meal, no matter how good it was.

Jack put on an oven mitt and got out the garlic toast. Mom buys these huge loaves of sourdough bread when she makes spaghetti. There's some company in San Francisco that bakes it and distributes it throughout the state. She slices the loaf in half and smears butter on it, sprinkles powdered garlic on it, then puts it in the oven on a piece of tin foil. The thing was a couple of feet long and Jack cut it into three pieces. He put one on each of our plates and took the cutting board out to the dining room with the third piece on it.

I put our plates on the table and sat down while Jack offered the last piece of bread to Rudolfo. Rudolfo didn't want to take the last piece until Mom told him she'd give it to the dogs if he didn't. I wasn't concerned about the dogs. They've never gone hungry on spaghetti night before and I was sure tonight would be no exception.

Jack sat down and poured grated cheese until his plate looked like it was covered with snow. He twirled his fork, filling it with spaghetti. He brought it up to his lips just as I said, "Hey, Mary. Do you think you could get something that big in your mouth?"

She coughed as Jack continued as if I hadn't said anything. Mom said, "I'm sure she'll have no problems with that, Jill. You don't, do you?"

Jack finished chewing and said to Rudolfo, "Don't let them get to you. They just do it to get attention." Rudolfo nodded but I could tell he wasn't completely comfortable.

Jack looked at Mary. "Has Charlie called yet?"

"No. I've been listening for the phone."

"Maybe he forgot."

"Jack! Knock that stuff off."

"Yes, Mom."

The phone started to ring before Mary had a chance to voice her complaints. She was on her feet halfway to the kitchen before the first ring finished. She had the phone in her hand before the second one started.

Mom told Rudolfo, "Her boyfriend went down to Mexico with his parents. His mother's not doing very well and they took her to a clinic. If his father's OK with it, the kids are going to drive down there and bring him back this weekend."

"I would be happy to drive if you'd like."

"Thank you, Rudolfo. I'm sure they'll be fine. I'm going to let the kids have this little adventure by themselves."

Mary came in. "Mom! His father's on the phone. Hurry!"

"Oh settle down, Mary. He's not going anywhere."

She went into the kitchen. I could see Mary biting the inside of her mouth while clasping and unclasping her hands nervously.

Mom was back in about five minutes. She sat down and said, "Well, Charlie can come home this weekend. His father will have an answer on the other when you get there to pick him up."

Jack said, "You know she's going to be a pain to live with for the next few days, don't you?"

"I seem to remember several days over the past few months that you weren't the easiest person to be around, Jack. It's all part of growing up."

Mary came back in the room and grabbed Jack's arm, tugging him out of his chair. "Come on. Charlie's father's on the phone. You need to get directions."

I finished what was in my mouth and put my fork down.

"Mom, I hate to leave this food on my plate but I really have to get going if I want any sleep tonight."

"It's OK, Honey. I'm sure it won't go to waste."

I said good night to Rudolfo and got up. Jack was handing the phone to Mary as I went into the kitchen.

"Going up?"

"Yeah. I gotta get working on this thing."

"OK. Are you going to need me for a while?"

"No. I'll be fine since you put everything in folders."

"All right. I'm going to finish my dinner and then go do my cleanup at school. I should be back by 9:30 or so. I can help you then if you need it."

I kissed him, waved to Mary and headed upstairs. I got my bag out of the bedroom and took everything into the kitchen. I plugged in my laptop and got a tall glass of lemonade while it was warming up.

I thought Alex was going overboard when he did the pre-wiring but tonight I was happy he did. He put four port plates all over the place. Each one had an outlet for cable, another for a network cable and two for phone. There were two locations in our bedroom, two in the living room and one in the kitchen. I plugged a Cat 5 patch cord into the jack above the counter. I hit my Firefox icon and got a "No Network" message. I tried accessing Jack's computer and it couldn't be found, either.

I went into the living room and crawled underneath Jack's desk. There was a cable sitting on the floor next to the router. I plugged it in and went back to the kitchen. Success!

I logged onto my web host page and called up the site I'd reserved. What I wanted was fairly simple but there was still a lot of data entry that needed to be done.