Coming Home Read Online Free PDF Page B

it
with a clunk and yelled, “Robbie, it’s for you!  It’s a girl .”
    “Hey, kiddo,” he greeted her, and yawned.  “What’s up?”
    “We seemed to be on a roll last night.  I thought we might work
together again tonight.  That is, if you’re not busy.”
    “Yeah, sure.  Swing by around seven.”
    Without the overwhelming distraction of Danny’s presence, she and
Rob worked together like a piece of well-oiled machinery.  She absorbed herself
in the work as he magically transformed the music she played into written
notation.  His praise was direct and unembellished, his criticism specific and
constructive, his suggestions for improvement unfailingly on the mark.
    They broke for coffee around eleven.  “I have a confession to
make,” she told him.  “The real reason I came here tonight was to avoid Danny.”
    Rob took a sip of coffee.  “I know.”
    “But I owe you an apology.  I’m afraid I sold you short.  You’re
very talented.  I’m glad I got the chance to work with you.”
    He studied the toes of his sneakers.  “Are you looking for
advice?”
    Cupping her coffee mug in both hands, she got up and crossed the
room to look at the photographs that adorned the wall above the fireplace. 
“Your brothers and sisters?” she asked.
    “All nine of us.”
    She studied the pictures.  “I’m getting married in a month,” she
said.
    “Forgive me for saying this, but I’ve seen happier brides.”
    “I thought it was what I wanted.” 
    “Until you met Danny.”
    “Until I met Danny.”  She squared her shoulders and turned.  “So
tell me, Doctor MacKenzie, what’s your prescription?”
    He set down his coffee cup, leaned forward, and tugged at his
shoelace.  “Tell the world to go to hell,” he said, “and follow your heart.”
     
    ***
     
    Danny circled the block for the fifth time, slowing as he passed
the lighted window.  It was nearly midnight.  How the hell would he explain his
presence?  I just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop in . 
Rob would never buy it.
    He tightened his fingers on the steering wheel.  How could it be
possible that in just three days, his life had fallen apart?  He had his music,
he had his friends, and he had his freedom, and if he wanted to go out and get
laid, he did.  When he came home, he didn’t have to answer to anybody.  And
that was the way he liked it.  He didn’t need some skinny little starry-eyed
eighteen-year-old kid ruining it for him.
    A girl like that would want things he couldn’t give her.  A home,
kids, some kind of stability.  He was married to his career.  If that made him
a selfish bastard, he didn’t give a damn.  His music came first.
    Besides, the girl wasn’t even free.  She was already spoken for,
her wedding just a month away.  The thought left a sick taste in his mouth. 
She was going to throw herself away on that bloodless Jesse Lindstrom, and
there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.
    He left the Chevy at the curb and strode purposefully up the front
walk and rang the bell.  The drone of the television floated through the open
window, and a moth thumped at the light fixture over his head.  Rob’s father
came to the door and peered out at him through the screen.  “Danny,” he said,
holding the door open.  “Come on in.  The kids are downstairs.”
    The murmur of voices floated up the cellar stairwell.  Casey was
sitting beside Rob on the couch with the faded chintz cover, one leg folded
beneath her, all that lustrous black hair falling loose to her waist.  When she
saw him, her eyes widened.  “Danny,” she said.  “What are you doing here?”
    He wondered if she could hear the hammering of his heart.  “I came
for you,” he said.
    He’d come armed with a half-dozen arguments in case she turned him
down, but she just nodded mutely and stood, running a hand through her hair,
her slender fingers gleaming white against its darkness.  “Good night,