Chapter 30
Not Quite Social

Part 4

July 8, 2000

Simon’s brow was creased thoughtfully.  He nodded his head, not really following the discussion but politely feigning deep interest as he listened to his companion babble on.

Matthew Belden definitely got his conversational skills from his mother.

The eight-month old boy was bouncing on Simon’s knee, where Honey had dumped him before hurrying off to the kitchen with some lame excuse about potato salad.

Simon had nieces and nephews.  He wasn’t opposed to children in general but he preferred older children—kids he could talk to, joke with, play football with.  And it wasn’t that he disliked babies.  He just didn’t know what to do with them.

“Gaba, dee, da, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.”

“Is that so?” Simon asked.  “Honey, what does he want?  Ba-ba?  Is that a bottle?”

“No,” Honey called from the kitchen.  “When he says it over and over like that it means blanket.”

“Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.”

“Yeah, he’s said it about thirty times now.  What blanket?  Any blanket?”  There was an afghan on the back of the chair he was sitting in.

“No, the white one with the blue bunnies on it.”

Simon spotted it on the fireplace hearth behind him.  He stretched out his arm and grabbed it, offering it to Matthew.  “Dude, blue bunnies?  Seriously?  Be a man.”

“Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!” Matthew replied, shrieking gleefully as he pressed the blanket up against his face.

“Fine," he said with a chuckle.  "Don’t be a man.”

“You’re one to talk.  Babysitter.”

The snort of derision made him bring his head up and he grinned at Joanne Darnell.  “I’ll have you know, that women love men with babies.”

Another unladylike snort escaped from her.  “Some women.”

“Yeah, well you watch out.  You’re next.”

“Next to what?”

“Honey Belden won’t be happy until everybody she loves is canoodling and having babies.”

“What?”

He smirked at the sudden lack of color in her face.  “No kidding.  She’s asked Diana no less than three times today when Tad’s going to propose.  And she’s asked Sally about the wedding planning—the wedding that isn’t happening for three years—at least four times.  And although she’s only asked Trixie and Dan once when they plan to start a family, I haven’t seen them since, so I can only assume they’re canoodling away somewhere, following her suggestion.”

“Trixie and Dan aren’t starting a family yet.  What’s the matter with you?  Have you ever met a pregnant Secret Service agent?”

Simon shrugged.  “No, but until I met Trixie, I’d never met a Secret Service agent, period.”

“Da-da-da-da-da-da.”  Mathew babbled excitedly, his small hands smacking Simon’s arm to attract his attention.

“No,” Simon answered firmly.  “Not Da-da.  Look.”  He patted the top of his head and laughed as Matthew mimicked him.  “Da-da has dark hair.  Uncle Simon has blond hair.  And Da-da doesn’t have facial hair either.”

With a squeal of delight, Matthew reached out and tried to grab Simon’s closely trimmed goatee.

“Ouch!  Watch it, little Belden.”

“You’ve got a real way with kids, Dr. Spock,” Jo commented sarcastically.

“Yeah, well, Honey’s dumped Matthew here to influence me and I suspect you’re next.  So watch out,” he warned, carefully extracting the baby’s drool-soaked fingers from his chin.

Jo ignored the overwhelming cuteness and crossed her arms defiantly across her chest.  “And just who does she think I’m going to be canoodling with?  You?”

Simon shook his head seriously.  “Heck, no.  We upset way too many apple carts New Year’s Eve.”

“Well, the only other single guy here is Jim.”

“No, apparently Jim isn’t available, either.”

Her dark eyes narrowed and Simon grinned.  There was little he enjoyed more than a spirited woman.

“What?”

“Didn’t you know?  He and Hallie Belden are something of an item in Indian Lake.”

“Jim hasn’t said anything about that to me.  How do you know?” she asked skeptically.

“I saw them.”

“You saw them ... canoodling?”

“No, and stop using that word.  That’s my word.  I saw them kissing.”

“So?” she responded scornfully, as if he had no proof whatsoever.

“So,” he snarked back, “I saw them kissing.  Outside her cottage.  At dawn.  And she was wearing a bathrobe.  Clearly, he was sneaking back to his place after their overnight tryst.”

“When was this?”

“Memorial Day weekend.”

He watched her dark eyes snapping back and forth as she tried to find Jim in the large Belden apartment.  A familiar burst of husky laughter from the kitchen had her spinning on her heel and stalking off that way.

Simon flashed a naughty grin to the little boy on his knee.  “Uncle Jim’s in deep doo-doo.”

“Dee-dee-dee-dee-dee,” Matthew agreed enthusiastically as he made another grab for Uncle Simon’s face.

***

The Beldens’ Gramercy Park apartment had a long, narrow foyer leading from the front doorway and ending at a half-bath that was nestled between the galley style kitchen to the right and the large living room to the left.  There was a crowd of gabbing women in the kitchen, heard but not seen.  The men were in the living room watching the Mets on television.  The foyer was the perfect place for some privacy.

Or the perfect place to eavesdrop on people in the hallway.

Simon pretended to be perusing the family photos Honey had hanging on the wall but he kept one ear cocked toward the front door.  It was only very slightly ajar but both Jim and Joanne had strong voices, especially when they were angry, even more so when they were angry with each other.

“How did you find out?” Jim growled.

“So you’re not denying it?” Jo replied.

“How did you find out?” he repeated.

“I found out.  You’re not exactly some hermit living in the middle of the damn wilderness, Frayne.  I happen to know a lot of the same people you know in Indian Lake.  If you didn’t want anybody to find out, you should’ve worn your cloak of invisibility.”

“Don’t be a smart ass.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that you and Hallie are seeing each other?  I thought you were my best friend.  I thought you told me everything, especially about all your doomed relationships with women.”

Simon raised his eyebrows at that.  The Eagle Scout had a string of bodies behind him?  He knew about Renee, of course, but they had been together for almost a year, which hardly put Jim in the same class as Simon when it came to loving them and leaving them.

“At least I have relationships, which is more than I can say for you, Miss Looking for Mr. Right Now.”

Maybe not, Simon recanted.  Apparently, he and Jo had more in common than he and Jim, after all.

“Let’s forget for a moment that Hallie is one of your employees.  She’s also a Belden.  You can’t take up hopeless relationships with people related to Bob-Whites.”

“Who said it was hopeless?”

“Well, the fact that it’s such a big secret you can’t even tell me certainly doesn’t bode well for you two.”

Jim let out a growl of frustration and lowered his voice.  Simon had to move closer to the door in order to hear him.

“Joey, there is no relationship with Hallie.”

His voice had softened, but Jo’s rose sharply at that comment.  “What?”

“You heard me.  We went out a few times but that’s it.  She wasn’t interested in anything serious.”

Hallie might not have been interested, but Simon was interested by that statement.  Very interested indeed.

“Then why on earth did you let me go on like that?”  Jo muttered what sounded like a curse word and added, “I’m going to kill him for tricking me.”

“Kill who?”  Apparently, it came to Jim an instant later because he also muttered a profanity before snarling, “Drake?”

“He said you and Hallie were sleeping together.”

“How would he know?”

“He saw you two outside her cottage very early in the morning.”

Jim snarled again.  “He was in town Memorial Day weekend and he was practically stalking Hallie.”

Simon made a face.  Stalking?  Get real, Frayne!

“So what were you doing there if you two aren’t sleeping together?”

“I can’t believe that jerk was spying on us!”

“Ohmigod,” Jo breathed in disbelief.  “You’re totally avoiding the question.  You are sleeping with Hallie Belden!”

Simon heard Jim and Jo move off down the hallway as their conversation became louder and more animated.

He enjoyed provoking Jim but didn’t particularly want to get into a fistfight with him.  It would make Honey and Brian upset, which he didn’t want to do.  Besides, his surgical hands were too valuable to risk in a primal display of testosterone.

He turned and moved quickly toward the kitchen.  Flashing his most charismatic smile, he greeted, “Hello, lovely ladies.”  He was not above seeking protection amongst a bevy of kind-hearted women.

Five pairs of eyes turned his way.  Three women, secure in their own relationships, smiled flirtatiously back.  One woman’s expression was part affection, part exasperation—a look only a sister could give her big brother.  The fifth woman had little expression on her face, her dark eyes flat and emotionless.

Well, it was better than the look Hallie usually gave him, the look that could cut through glass.

Actually, he kind of missed that look.

“Diana, are we still on for next week?” he asked, certain the ambiguous question would put the spark back in Hallie’s eyes.

Batting her long, black lashes at him coyly, Diana slid her hands around his muscular bicep in a way that was sure to put a spark in Tad’s eye.  “We certainly are, Dr. Dreamboat.”

Diana was a beautiful woman.  Her violet eyes were the most remarkable he had ever seen and she was curvy in all the right places, a definite sex kitten.

But he paid no attention to her as she told the other women about the freelance photography job at Presbyterian that he had recommended her for—photographing staff and buildings for a new directory and brochure.

His eyes were fixed on a woman who was less curvy, not as outwardly sensual, whose dark eyes rarely showed any emotion but dislike for him.

In his mind, she was more beautiful than Diana Lynch.  And while he normally quite enjoyed basking in the adulation most women were happy to lavish upon him, it was Hallie’s refusal to acknowledge his magnetic attraction that he found so damnably fascinating.

“When will you hear back from National Geographic?” Trixie asked Diana.

“Well, the internship ended just last week and they said it would be about three to four weeks before we heard anything,” Diana replied.  “Tad and I are going on vacation next week and hopefully by the time we get back to New York, I’ll have heard something.”

Several crude sounds came from the trio currently watching the game in the living room.  One of them—it was hard to tell which one with the grotesquely exaggerated caveman-speak—grunted, “Ungh.  Ungh.  Need more beer.  Woman, bring beer.  Beer for men!”

Diana, Sally, and Trixie looked at each other.

“Whose turn is to take care of the Neanderthals?” Trixie asked dryly.

“By ‘take care of’ do you mean bring them beer or smack them upside the head?” Sally asked.

“Ladies, allow me,” Simon replied with a genteel half-bow.

Diana swooned dramatically as she gave his bicep an appreciative squeeze.  “What a gentleman!”

“He does have his moments,” Trixie agreed with a bright smile.

Simon gently disengaged himself from Diana’s hands and opened the fridge.  He passed a quick wink at Hallie as he did so and was shocked to see her avert her eyes in a decidedly shy manner.  He grabbed four beers and was about to go when he noticed his sister, her hands on her hips, staring at him intently.

“What?”

“Finish your thought, dear brother,” she said evenly.

Sally had known him longer than all the other women put together.  With an impish grin, he said, “You ladies just stay here in the kitchen ... where you belong.”

He was chased out of the room with insulted growls and a flick of a kitchen towel against his behind.

When he got to the living room, the first thing he noticed was that Jim and Jo had returned and that they both looked pleasantly relaxed.  Jim had probably told Jo everything, thus relieving himself of any emotional burdens he carried while reassuring Jo once again that she was his greatest confidant.

“You brought me a beer!  How nice!” Jo exclaimed, snitching one of the bottles from Simon’s hands.

He handed the other three to Mart, Dan and Tad and sat down with exaggerated moroseness on the couch.

“Open, please,” Jo pleaded, handing him the bottle back.

“How?”

“Why don’t you use your teeth?” Jim suggested dryly.  “I’m pretty sure your hands are your only valuable assets.”

Taking the bottle opener Mart handed down to him, Simon grinned wickedly.  “I think Joanne might disagree with that.”

Jo reclaimed her beer with one hand and with the other soundly smacked Simon on the head. “Shut the hell up, jackass!”

Simon had heard her call Jim “jackass” on more than one occasion.  Somehow, it sounded so much more affectionate when directed at the redhead.  Rubbing the back of his head tenderly, he chided, “Language, Jo.  There are children present.”

Brian chuckled as he returned from the bedroom.  “Matthew’s down for his nap.  And he’s still a bit young to be so impressionable that he repeats everything he hears.”

“Just make sure you don’t invite Joey over anymore after he turns two,” Jim remarked, “until he’s 21 or so.”

Jo made a face at him then apologized as the women came in from the kitchen.  “I’m sorry, Honey.”

Honey smiled forgivingly.  She carried a large platter of uncooked burgers, brats, and hot dogs.  “Is the grill ready?”

“The baby is sleeping, the grill is ready, I am a man of many talents,” Brian confirmed, giving her a kiss on the cheek and taking the meat out to the balcony.

“That’s what Honey tells us,” Sally quipped.

As Honey blushed and the rest of the group laughed, Jo said pertly, “So it’s okay for Sally to do it?  Won’t she be a bad influence on Matthew?”

“The difference is, Counselor, she used innuendo instead of vulgarities,” Jim answered sagely.  He put his arm around her and gave her a fond kiss on the temple.

Simon watched Jim’s actions carefully, struck by the similarity in how he had treated Hallie Memorial Day weekend.  He almost wished there were more single women at the party so he could hit on them and see how Protective Jim would react.

***

After dinner, Jim and Joanne left with Mart and Sally for Sleepyside.  Trixie, Dan, Honey, Brian, and Diana were embroiled in a rather competitive card game at the dining room table.  When Simon had questioned Sally about it, she warned him to steer clear even as she dragged a reluctant Mart out to the car, whining about the winning streak he was on and how he couldn’t miss a game.

It was incongruous to see the wholesome, charitable Bob-Whites playing cards with such cut-throat passion.

After Matthew had awakened and been fed, he had been foisted on Tad so his parents could focus on Progressive Rum.  After an initial period of mutual distrust and uncertainty, the two had become fast friends and Matthew was now dozing in the crook of Tad’s arm while Tad talked to his brother on his cell phone.

Simon had been about to say goodnight when he noticed Hallie standing out on the balcony by herself.  Unable to resist her silent siren lure, he snuck past the card players completely unnoticed as they cheerfully argued about who was hogging all the wild cards and stealing the low spades Trixie needed to complete her set.

“You’re not playing?” he asked as he came outside.

“I’m not a Bob-White,” she answered simply.

Simon raised one eyebrow.  “I didn’t realize they were so cliquish about cards.”

“Just Progressive Rum.  They’ll happily play any other card game with outsiders.  In fact, I’m sure they’d allow us to play Progressive Rum.  It just wouldn’t be the same.  We kind of have an unspoken agreement—Tad and Sally and I—about letting them play by themselves.”

Simon gazed out across the city.  From the ninth floor apartment, the view of the park right across the street and the city beyond was incredible, though he expected nothing less for the heiress to the vast Wheeler fortune.

Turning around, he leaned back against the railing and stared into the apartment.  Honey had apparently won the last hand, leaving her best friend with a handful of cards and thus a handful of points she didn’t want.  Trixie kept scowling at her as she struggled to mentally add up all her points.  Brian was in charge of the scorecard and Honey kept reasserting smugly, “Zero for me,” while he tried to record the rest of the players’ points.

Simon turned his head slightly to the right and was about to make a wisecrack about Honey’s sweetness when Hallie spoke.

“Why did you tell Joanne that Jim and I were sleeping together?”

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t realize it was a secret.”

“It’s not a secret because it isn’t true.”

She seemed more adamant than angry, Simon noted curiously, as if it were important to her that he not think she was seeing someone else.

Turning to face her, he said, “Hallie, I saw you—”

“What you saw was Jim being ... Jim,” she interrupted wearily.  “He’s protective.  I’m his best friend’s cousin, I’m one of his employees.  He saw you talking to me and after what happened in Sleepyside, he must have just figured I needed protecting.  Which I don’t.  I can take care of myself.”

With a woeful grin, Simon deliberately rubbed his cheek and said, “Yes, I remember.”

Not even a tiny smirk.  What did he have to say or do to make her smile?

“Anyway,” he continued, “I wasn’t talking about by my parents’ house.  I was talking about at the school, outside your cottage.”

“Wh-what?” she stammered.  “When?”

The fact that she didn’t seem to know exactly when he might have seen them sealed the deal, at least in his mind.  She and Jim were seeing each other.

“The next morning.  It was very early,” he said pointedly.

A dark flush rose in her cheeks as she replied, “Jim didn’t spend the night.”

Simon shrugged, trying to act like he didn’t care one way or the other and hoping she couldn’t see how much it bothered him.  And wondering why it did bother him so much.

“He didn’t,” she insisted.  “Jim and I went out on a few dates but he wasn’t at my place overnight.  We’re not seeing each other.  He was there because … we had … I told him—I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” she concluded angrily.  “It’s none of your business.”

“I didn’t ask you to make it my business,” he growled back.

A furor at the card table drew their attention.

“Yes!”

“No way!  Nobody wins the last hand that fast!  It was rigged!”

Honey was giggling uncontrollably while Brian and Diana both inspected her cards to make sure she had them all right.  Trixie threw her cards down in disgust.

“Trixie, you dealt,” Honey reminded her.  “If there was a fix, you fixed it.”

“Look at it this way, babe,” Dan teased.  “Honey was already so far in the lead that at least you don’t have to add up that mess in your hand.”

“Oh, great,” Trixie grumbled.  “No math.  That’s my consolation prize for finishing last.”

The commotion awakened Matthew who began to wail.  Tad begged for somebody with “baby experience” to take him and Honey obliged.  Brian began cleaning up the cards while Trixie, Dan and Diana all rose to go.

“Are you ready, Hallie?” Diana called out.

“Yes,” she replied, forcing a lightness to her tone that didn’t quite match up to the chill Simon felt standing on the balcony with her.

“I’m sorry if I caused any problems between you and Jim and Joanne,” he offered as she walked past him.

She stopped near the open doorway and turned to face him.  He could clearly see the internal war she was fighting but finally, somewhat surprisingly, peace won out.  “It’s all right.”

She hovered near the door, her brow creased in thought.  He had the feeling she wanted to say something else but was once again struggling internally with the decision.

Finally, she lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug and glanced up at him from underneath her dark lashes.  “It’s all right,” she said again.  “I just ... anyway, Jim and I aren’t seeing each other.”

“Let’s go, Hal,” Tad called. 

“Goodnight, Simon.”

Simon watched her walk off, a shadow of a smile playing around his mouth.

She hadn’t slapped him.  Hadn’t blown up at him.  Hadn’t spewed any vitriolic curses at him.

That was progress.

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Author's Notes

Part 4 (3,502 words)
Total Word Count for Chapter 30 (15,592 words)

Simon and Joanne upset apple carts in Chapter 28-All Revelation.  Diana got a 6-month internship at National Geographic in Chapter 27-It Is Almost the Year Two Thousand.  

Dr. Spock (not to be confused with Star Trek's Mr. Spock) is the world-renowned pediatrician whose 1946 book Baby and Child Care is one of the biggest best-sellers of all times.

And if you'd like to know where Trixie and Dan disappeared to after Honey's gentle prodding, read on for your bonus Chapterette 30A-A Dream Pang.

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