J. Fynn - The Long Game

“So,” she said after a long moment. “Is your family still in New Orleans?”

I nodded, grateful for the question. She seemed so nervous that I’d started to worry my usual talents wouldn’t be much use in winning her over. “My mam and my older brother are both there,” I answered, neglecting to mention the entire village of Travelers who were mostly distant relatives in one way or another.

She arched a questioning eyebrow. “Your ‘mam’?”

Dammit. I cast about for an explanation, then simply decided on the truth. “She’s Irish—my mother. I mean—actually-from-Ireland Irish. It’s just what we call her.”

“That’s cool. Have you ever been?”

“To Ireland?”

“Yeah.”

“No, but she keeps threatening to take us.” I laughed. “She says every Irishman needs to see the ‘land of saints and scholars’ at least once before he dies. I’m sure she’d say the same thing for Irishwomen, too, of course.” I bumped my shoulder into hers the way Kay had done.

Spencer smiled. “I’d like to go someday for sure. OIA has a program that allows you to study at Trinity College for a semester. I’ve thought about applying, but the idea of being on my own in Dublin for a semester is a little scary.”

“Yeah, being away from home can be rough.” I’d only been gone for a few days, and already I missed Maggie, Jimmy Boy, and the dogs.

“I’m surprised you knew I was Irish. With a last name like Costello, most people assume I’m Italian.”

“Well, you’re in OIA, so I just guessed.” I left out the fact that Costello was a pretty common Traveler name. There were at least two dozen of them back home—probably even related to her, though they’d never claimed Tommy as far as I’d ever heard. Of course, they wouldn’t, given what he’d done.

She grinned, and it quickly brought my attention back to the present moment. “So what does yer mam do?” she asked, affecting a convincing Irish brogue.

“Oh, a bit o’ this, a bit o’ that.” I mimicked Maggie’s airy, lilting speech. “She’s a diviner. She reads tarot cards and tea leaves for the tourists and for the locals who believe in that sort of thing.” It wasn’t a complete lie. Many women in the Village came to Maggie to learn how a particular season of traveling might work out or to get assurance that a marriage arrangement would lead to a happy life for a child, but for now, it served my purpose for Spencer to imagine her as one of the fortunetellers in New Orleans’ Jackson Square.

Spencer fixed me with a curious smile. I guessed it sounded a little strange given how normal her upbringing must’ve been. But if she thought badly of my family or me, she didn’t say so. “Sometimes I wouldn’t mind knowing what my future holds,” she admitted.

I took the opening. I turned her hand so her palm faced upward and scrutinized it for several silent moments. With the index finger of my free hand, I traced a line that traversed the pale surface of her palm. Her slight shiver at my touch was encouraging, to say the least.

“Well, now…” I continued my Maggie impersonation. “What do we have here, lass? It seems you have a bright future indeed.” I glanced up at her through my lashes. She stared at her hand enveloped in mine. “I see you in an abandoned courtyard, and…what’s this?” I looked at her again, pleased to see she’d leaned in a hair closer in anticipation of what I’d say next. “You appear to be getting very close to a handsome young stranger.”

She laughed but pulled away. I registered a fleeting sense of disappointment at the sudden emptiness of my hand but smiled at her anyway.

“I certainly hope your mom is better than you because, as far as fortune telling goes, that was pretty weak.”

“What can I say? I guess the only thing she passed on to me was her eyes.”

“Then I think you got the better end of the deal,” Spencer said.

I wanted to kiss her then, but after her experience with the drunk in the alcove, I wasn’t sure how she’d react. Instead I dropped my eyes, pretending to be embarrassed by the compliment.

“So what about your mom?” I asked. I was honestly curious. Pop hadn’t known who Tommy had taken up with after he’d left the Village, but Spencer was born soon after, so there had to have been someone.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” She shrugged. “I know she was a waitress, but she took off right after I was born, so it’s just been my dad and me.”

“Same here,” I said. “With my dad, I mean. He died before I was born.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, her expression pained. She squeezed my hand, and I was surprised by the genuine rush of affection. If anyone else had told me Tommy Costello had been left alone with a baby girl to raise on his own, I would’ve been glad to hear it. Sitting in the dark holding Spencer’s hand, I just felt bad for her.

“Do you see that constellation right there?” she asked, pointing at something over our heads. I appreciated the chance to shake off the disconcerting feelings of sympathy and looked up to follow the line of her outstretched arm. “It’s Òighean,” she continued. “When I was little, my dad told me no matter how alone I felt, the Lady of the Stars would always be where I could find her.”

I leaned closer to her and bent my neck back so I was nearer her eye level, then squinted to search for the woman. After a moment, I shook my head, chuckling. “I’m not sure which stars you’re pointing at.”

Spencer rolled her eyes at me and pressed her fingertips under my chin, tilting my face in the direction of the constellation. She pointed again with her free hand. I nodded, but my mind was preoccupied with the feeling of her fingers against my skin. I looked down at her. Spencer’s face was still upturned, and her skin glowed a pale silver in the moonlight as she smiled. Without giving any thought to how she would react or whether it would set back any progress I’d made so far, I kissed her.

Spencer’s response wasn’t immediate, but after a moment, she kissed me back, pressing her hands into my chest. I laid one hand against the side of her neck and tangled the fingers of my other through the silky hair at the back of her head. Her mouth was hot on mine, and she tasted sweet as our tongues met.

Long before I was ready for it to end, she broke off the kiss. She looked up at me breathlessly, her lips parted. Our faces were so close I could feel her warm breath against my cheek.

“I guess your prediction wasn’t so far off after all,” she said with a playful grin.

I smiled and pulled her back to me for another kiss.

“YOU HAVE NICE hands,” Spencer said, running her fingers down my palm.

We’d spent every evening together in the week since the party, and tonight was no exception. She stretched out across the sofa in the sorority’s living room, her head resting in my lap. It was rare for us to have the common area to ourselves, so even though the television was on, neither of us paid it much attention.

“You have nice everything,” I said, catching her fingers between mine.

“Be more specific,” she said with a grin that made my blood stir.

I shifted my hips slightly. “I like your nose.” I leaned forward to kiss the tip of it. “Your chin.” I pressed my lips to the southern point of her heart-shaped face. “And I especially like your mouth.”

She lifted her head to meet my kiss. It started as a peck, but when her lips parted, I tucked my hand under her head to pull her face even closer. She slid a hand around the back of my neck, and her cool fingers against the sensitive skin at my hairline immediately made my kissing more insistent.

“Jeez, get a room.” Moira, the OIA sister responsible for Spencer’s passing French grade, leaned against the doorframe that opened into the living room.

“You’re one to talk,” Spencer said, though she pushed herself up so she was sitting next to me instead of lying across my lap. “You know how many episodes of The Daily Show I’ve missed because you and your latest boy toy are hogging the living room?”

Spencer’d explained on my first evening in the house that the OIAs had a strict rule about when boys became boyfriends and were thus welcome in the upper level of the house. Frankly, it was a rule I was beginning to resent. The closer I got to Spencer, the sooner I’d have access to Tommy and the book he’d stolen from Pop. Still, I had to admit there was something admirable about a group of girls looking out for each other, even when it would be easy to look the other way. It reminded me of what Pop had said about giving the young members in the clan a little breathing room without letting them get into too much trouble.

Moira giggled. “Fair enough. But it’s Project Runway day, so the TV’s mine in 20 minutes.”

When she’d gone, Spencer pulled her feet up and turned so she was facing me. “I didn’t realize it was so late,” she said, resting her head against the back of the sofa.

“Time flies.” I grinned at her. I wasn’t ready to leave yet. I’d planned to press her a little more on the subject of family tonight, maybe even work into the conversation that I wouldn’t mind meeting her dad. But somehow the entire evening had passed without me getting any closer to an invitation to Tommy’s than I’d been since I’d run into her accidentally-on-purpose outside the Carroll Center. Still, I didn’t want to press my luck either, and the idea of spending a little more time with Spencer certainly wasn’t the worst thing I could imagine.

“You have an early class tomorrow, yeah? I should probably let you get to bed.” I slid to the edge of the sofa.

“Don’t you dare,” she said and threw her legs into my lap, pinning me to the cushion.

I laughed, surprised but perfectly happy to stay put. I leaned back into the sofa and looked at her. “Okay, then. So what should we do for our last twenty minutes of alone time?” I wrapped my hands around one of the slender feet in my lap and kneaded the arch with my thumbs.

“Mmm.” She closed her eyes. “This is good.”

I continued working the sole of her foot, moving from arch to heel. A contented smile lit her face as she relaxed deeper into the couch. Relaxed and happy. Perfect.

“So tell me more about your family. I know you’re an only child, but what about cousins, aunt and uncles, grandparents?” It was easy to keep my tone casual when I already knew the answers to my questions. Any family she did have, Tommy wouldn’t have told her about.

“Nope. I mean, I guess I could have relatives on my mom’s side, but you know. My dad was an only child, and his parents died when he was a teenager.”

“You weren’t kidding when you said it was just you and your dad. Must’ve been tough.” My fingers moved to her ankle. “I’m not sure what I would have done without my brother.”

“It was lonely sometimes, but honestly, we moved around so often I probably wouldn’t have been able to see extended family very much anyway. Sometimes, the fact that it was just him and I made things easier.”

“I can see that.” My hands had worked their way to her calf muscle, and my fingers moved under the hem of her cropped jeans. “Jimmy and I have gone on our share of road trips. It’s not the same as moving around a lot, but it’s nice when you spend so much time with someone on your own. You get to the point where you can just sort of read each other without doing much talking. It’s nice.” And it makes running cons much easier when you were leaving town the next day.

“Exactly,” she said. She might have said more, but my fingers brushed the back of her knee and the resulting shudder apparently drove away any other thought she’d had.

“They’re thinking of coming up for Christmas,” I said, switching to her other foot. “Maggie hasn’t seen snow since she left Ireland.”

Spencer finally opened her eyes again and smiled. “It’s so weird that you call your mom Maggie.”

“If you met her, you’d understand. It’s hard to think of her as anything else.”

“I’d love to meet her. And Jimmy, too. You know, if you’d be okay with it.”

I hoped the grin spreading across my face told her I was excited by her desire to meet my family and not that she’d just given me the opening I’d been waiting for. “I’d be more than okay with it,” I said. “They’ll love you.”

Color appeared in her cheeks, and she smiled shyly. “You think? I’d probably be really nervous and say something stupid.”

“I doubt it, but even if you did, that’d probably just make them like you even more.” I let go of her foot and took both her hands in mine to pull her closer. “I certainly like you better when you get a little flustered. At least then you’re not intimidating the shit out of me.”