Families are messy - 15

“When do you start rehearsals?”

“Monday.” Marcia replied as she and Casey walked to his vehicle.

“And once you do you’ll be so busy I’ll have to make an appointment a month ahead of time to get to see you,” he replied with a laugh.

She paused before getting into the SUV as if considering that. “A week should be sufficient I think,” she told him seriously, and then laughed at his frown. “I’m teasing, Casey. If you really want to see me just call. It’s not as if I’ll be busy twenty-four/seven. Well,” she added once she was inside, cinching the safety belt, “except for the times when the catering company needs me. I do need to pay the rent so I can’t give that up quite yet.”

“If you need help...“ Casey said as he slid into the driver’s seat and turn the key in the ignition.

“Mr. Rothem,” there was a trace of anger in her voice, “I do not take handouts, even from family and certainly not from a man I’ve only known for a little less than two weeks.”

“Sorry, it was just a suggestion.” Casey pulled out of the parking space onto the street, looking a bit crestfallen.

Reaching across the console to pat his thigh she replied, “I know, and a very considerate one but, well,” she grinned at him, “I’m not a floozy despite what your sister thinks.”

“I know you’re not,” he replied with a chuckle, “even if you are a famous actress, and we know how they are, flitting from man to man.”

Her laughter filled the SUV. “If, and it’s a big if, I ever really get famous I’m going to go against stereotype and be a one man woman.”

He glanced at her, saying with feigned seriousness, “Doesn’t that go against some code of the theater?”

“Actually I’ve never read the rule book so I wouldn’t know,” she told him straight-faced.

They both broke into wide grins then before Casey asked, “What kind of food are you hungry for?”

“Tacos,” she answered immediately, pointing to a fast-food restaurant just ahead of them. “Tons of them with lots of hot sauce.”

“You can’t be serious.” He flicked on the turn signals and veered into the parking lot to the blast of a horn from the startled driver behind him.

“I love them, honest. Although the ambiance of the place leaves something to be desired.”

“So we’ll get a few dozen and then, tell you what I’ll take you to meet Duke. You and he have a lot in common.”

Marcia snorted. “I drool and bay at the moon?”

“Now that I couldn’t say, but I like you both, and you both like tacos.” There was an affectionate, almost wistful smile on his face as he said that and Marcia returned it with a hopeful one of her own.

* * * *

Duke whined softly, putting his head down and his paws and looking up at his master pitifully when Casey told him, “No more for you.”

“Aww, poor puppy,” Marcia consoled him, patting his head. His eyes lit up with hope until she said, “What Casey says, goes.”

“I swear he actually understands our words,” Casey commented as he balled up the last of the taco wrappers and tossed it into the trashcan. “Now of course he’s going to want to go for a walk to work it all off.”

“Him, or you,” Marcia asked with a grin.

“All of us?”

Her grin was infectious as always and he matched it with one of his own, realizing once again that it had been ages since he’d actually enjoyed life the way he was right now. Even the idea that someone was out to kill him couldn’t put a damper on that.

“Then let’s do it.” Casey snagged Duke’s leash from where it hung by the side of the back door, hitching it to his collar, and then with the dog in the lead they left the yard by the back gate.

“Nice alley, if you’re into alleys,” Marcia said with a laugh. “At least it’s clean.”

Casey chuckled as he stopped to clean up after Duke, tossing the bag in the nearest dumpster. “It is now.”

“So, where’s he taking us?” Marcia wanted to know as they continued to let Duke lead the way.

“To infinity and beyond?”

Marcia snorted. “Buzz Lightyear he ain’t.”  

They walked in companionable silence for a while until Duke made a bee-line for the entrance to a pocket-park a few blocks from the house.

“Oh boy, kid alert,” Casey warned Marcia. “He loves the attention he gets from them.”

She watched in amusement as Casey let the bloodhound off the leash and the dog immediately headed towards the playground. The four kids saw him coming and swarmed him immediately, obviously not caring in the least when he slobbered them in greeting. Their parents it seemed were a bit less happy but took it in stride.

“Do you come here often,” Marcia asked as she and Casey sat down on a bench at the edge of the sandpit to keep an eye on Duke.

“Since I’ve only lived in the neighborhood for the last couple of weeks we’ve been here maybe three times in all.”

“You like it here?”

“I do actually. It’s nice to be able to be just another person, not part of some social clique as it were.”

She nodded. “I can understand that I think. I watch the people at those parties and galas and most of them don’t really seem happy. It’s like they think they have to put on a show to impress everyone else.”

“Exactly. This isn’t to say I won’t still attend some of them because I draw a lot of my business from the people who attend them. But at least I’ll be doing it willingly, not because I’m being dragged there.”

“You couldn’t have told her ‘no’?” Marcia asked, understanding that he was talking about his soon to be ex wife.

“Only if I wanted to put up with her sulking for the next few days and she had that down to an art form.”

“Poor you.” She patted his knee and looked pleasantly surprised when his hand covered hers to keep it there.

The shadows lengthened as the sun began slipping over the horizon and the parents gathered up their kids, mopping them off as best they could before heading out of the park. Duke came back to sit at Casey’s feet with a sigh as if dealing with the children had tired him out. With a shake of his head, Casey stood, attaching the leash again. “Time to head home and then,” he looked at Marcia, “there’s a good movie that opened today.”

“Not a chick flick I take it,” she replied with a grin.

“Better not be. Do you feel like finding out?”

“I’d love to, yes.”

“Great, because truth be told I hate going to movies alone.” He slipped his arm around her waist as they started to the entrance to the park. Then, as if realizing what he’d done, he started to pull away.

With a smile, not saying a word, she took his hand to keep his arm where it was and if she’d been looking at him at that moment she would have seen his eyes light up because she’d done that.