“Has she seen a ghost?” Southie said.
North glared at him. “Leave.”
“North, I can help,” Southie said.
“Leave.”
Southie sighed, clearly disappointed in his brother’s shortsightedness. “You let me know if she needs help. I’ll be right there. I’m staying in tonight, so if you want a nightcap, come on over.”
“She doesn’t need-” North began, but Southie was already heading for the door. “-your help,” he finished as the door closed behind his brother, and then he went back to the phone. “Yes, generally speaking, it’s illegal to burn a corpse. I’ll call a friend in England tomorrow, it’s after midnight there now.”
“He won’t think you’re crazy?” Andie said, and North thought, Well, at least she knows it’s crazy.
“Simon’s not a run-of-the-mill guy,” he told her. “He won’t bat an eye. I’ll put Kristin on finding May Younger’s grave tomorrow. Are you all right?”
“Yes, thank you. Sorry to sound hysterical.”
“You don’t sound hysterical. The corpse burning is over the top, but otherwise you’re pretty calm.”
“Ignore that part. Because mostly we’re normal.” Her voice brightened, and he thought, Somebody else came into the room. “And thank you again for the computers. The kids love them.”
“Was it too much for Alice?”
“No. Alice uses it to play Frogger. What? No, you can’t play Frogger now, it’s almost bedtime. Go brush your teeth and then I’ll come up and tell you the story. Yes, now. It’s Bad Uncle.”
Who? North thought.
“Alice wants to talk to you,” Andie said.
“Okay,” North said cautiously.
“Hello?” Alice bellowed into the phone.
North held the phone farther from his ear. “Hello, Alice.”
“We’re not leaving here!”
“That’s fine,” North said.
He heard the phone clunk and then Andie came back on and said, “Sorry about that.”
“No problem,” North said.
“No, you can’t tell him anything else. You’re just stalling. Go brush your teeth. He doesn’t want to talk to you again, you were rude. Yes, yelling at people is rude. Now go upstairs and brush your teeth. No. Upstairs now, Alice.”
He leaned back, listening to her argue with Alice, partly intrigued by this new bossy, maternal side of her and partly still dealing with the whole body-burning thing. She’d sounded as if she really believed there was a ghost. A nanny with a vivid imagination, he could dismiss. Andie saying it was different. If somebody was playing tricks, trying to drive outsiders away-
A wail rose up on the other side of the phone, and Andie said, “I have to go beat up a kid. The information would be gratefully appreciated.”
“Of course,” North said, and then the wail in the background was cut off by the dial tone. He put the phone back in the cradle and thought, Maybe I should go down there.
Except he was swamped with work. And Andie could take care of herself, the body-burning thing notwithstanding. She always had taken care of herself. She didn’t need him.
The memory of her turning to him with that glorious smile, opening her arms to him…
Don’t go down there.
That Andie was gone, she was marrying somebody else, she was having a really bad time and she did not need him down there, trying to get her into bed-
The memory of her rolling hot in his arms hit him again, one he’d been trying to forget for ten years. Andie, tangled in the sheets, clinging to him, shuddering under him, her mouth hot on him-
“Jesus!” he said, and got up from the desk and began to pace.
He needed to see her again. They had unfinished business. He wanted to finish it. Or start it again.
She was going to marry somebody else, so that was a problem. And she was still mad as hell about him neglecting her ten years ago. Neither of those were insurmountable obstacles unless she really loved this other guy. Plus there was the ghost thing.
He should go down there, see for himself what was going on. Find out about the ghost. Find out about Andie. If it was over, it was over. Of course it was over, it had been over for ten years.
But if it wasn’t…
Andie, hot in his arms again.
Oh, fuck, he thought, and went to get that drink from Southie.
Andie had gone up to the nursery after forcing Alice to brush her teeth-“Because they’ll rot out of your head if you don’t, and you’ll be ugly, and you won’t be able to eat cereal because you’ll have no teeth!”-her mind back on her own problems. If good old Aunt May showed up in her dreams that night, they were going to have a talk. In fact-
Alice came in to the nursery, her Bad Witch T-shirt-nightgown slipping down over one shoulder, her face washed and her teeth scrubbed. “I want my story.”
“Let’s try something new,” Andie said, determined to get more information before Aunt May showed up to play Three Questions again. “How about tonight you tell me a story about the dancing princess.”
“I would like to dance.” Alice went back in her bedroom and came out with her Walkman, popping it open in front of the boom box on the TV. “Put this in, please.”
Andie took the tape and read “Andie’s Music” on the label. “This is mine.”
“I know,” Alice said, sounding exasperated. “Put it in.”
Andie put the tape in the player and punched play, heard Cyndi Lauper start “She Bop,” and prayed that Alice wouldn’t ask what “She Bop” meant.
“I like this,” Alice said. “I dance to it.”
She began to bounce around the room singing while Andie thought about Aunt May.
The thing was, May didn’t seem malevolent. Young, pushy, a little spoiled, but not… horrible.
The song ended and Alice said, “Aren’t you going to dance?”
“What kind of music does the dancing princess dance to?” Andie said, and then “Somebody’s Baby” started, and Andie thought, Oh, hell.
“Did you used to dance to this?” Alice said, and Andie closed her eyes and remembered North walking across the floor of that dark bar to her the night they met, pulling her close, whispering in her ear as he moved against her, and all the nights they’d danced to it after that, in their attic bedroom.
“Yes,” she said. “I danced to this. I danced to this a lot.”
“Show me,” Alice said, holding out her arms, “show me a real dance,” and Andie was so surprised that Alice was reaching for her that she went.
Alice’s little hand was cool in hers, and there was a moment when Andie first took it that Alice went still, and then she said, “Show me!” and Andie showed her the basic box step, figuring that Alice would like the symmetry of that. Alice added a hip bounce which improved it tremendously, and then Andie showed her how to twirl under somebody’s arm which Alice loved, and then they just danced around the room while Alice sang, “Somebody’s baby,” over and over because she didn’t know the words yet.
“Play that again,” Alice said when it was done, and Andie thought, Jeez, twist the knife, kid, but she rewound the tape, and they danced again, Alice demanding many twirls, breaking off to bop by herself for a while but always coming back and holding up her arms for more, which charmed the hell out of Andie, singing, “Gonna shine tonight,” with fervor.
“Again,” Alice said, but Andie let it go to “I’ve Got a Rock ’n’ Roll Heart,” which had its own memories since North had been a huge Clapton fan. She and Alice danced wildly around the nursery, the box step and May forgotten for the moment, Alice singing like mad, completely happy since the first time Andie had met her.
She looks relaxed, Andie thought, holding on to Alice’s hand as she flailed happily, doing what was basically the Snoopy dance. She’d been so tense and unhappy at the beginning of the month, but now she was laughing. Maybe things were getting better, maybe-
Carter opened the door, and Alice said, “Come in. We’re dancing.” He shook his head and Andie said on impulse, “Someday there will be girls in your life and they like to dance. Get in here.”