CHAPTER 23

The sun had set a long time ago and the crowds had left the beach. Connie felt more rested now but her thoughts were still scattered. Warm gulf waters flowed up and over her ankles as she stood and looked towards the darkened horizon, imagining the sounds of waves rolling up onto the shore. She began to make a mental list of the events and her perceptions from the past few weeks. She needed some order in her life right now. She needed objectivity in regards to her relationship with Kevin Richardson. She couldn't seem to get past her first thought - What relationship?

She stood for a long time and was brought back to the present only when she discovered that she couldn't move her feet. Incoming and outgoing waves had washed the sand from under them and deposited sand on top of them. Her feet were buried up to her ankles. As she freed herself and rinsed them off, she came to realize that her conclusions hadn't really changed. Kevin was a generally intense man who had moments of slapstick humor as well as dry wit. He had a serious, decent and compassionate nature and was always ready to stand up for the less fortunate, less strong or less able. Connie figured she fit into the 'less able' category with a bit of 'less strong' thrown in for good measure. She smiled sadly as she remembered the fairy tales of her childhood. They did such a disservice to young girls. Men must have written them. Kevin Richardson was a knight - he just wasn't her knight…

It was beginning to get cool. Connie looked at her watch, surprised by the late hour. She decided to go back to her room and send Hannah a message, just to let her know that she was all right and was going to be out of touch for a few days. Then she would soak in a bubble bath. But first, she would stop by the hotel bar and take a look at their wine list. A large bottle of something expensive was just what she needed.

*****

Hannah stood in the doorway of the Vinoy bar and looked around the darkened room. There were very few people here, considering it was a weekend but that made it easy to spot the lone figure who sat in a corner booth. His back was to the door. Hannah watched him for a moment as he pulled off his baseball cap and combed his long hair back with his fingers. Then he lifted a bottle and poured dark liquid into a highball glass. Kevin had started without her.

"I see you and Jack have already formed an alliance…" Hannah said sarcastically as she slid onto the bench opposite Kevin.

"What's your pleasure, Hannah?" Kevin turned and waved a waiter over to their table.

"You planning on killing this whole bottle yourself?" she frowned. "They're gonna have to peel you up off the floor.."

Kevin looked at her and smirked. "I feel like I've been flattened anyway, so what the fuck difference does it make?"

"Ooooh, poor baby…." Hannah leaned across the table. She had lowered the sound of her voice but not her frustration. "That brings us to the point, doesn't it? Why the hell did you walk out today? You stood right in Connie's room and told me that you were in love with her and then you disappear and she leaves!"

"I tried to catch her at the airport…."

"What happened? You couldn't have been with her more than five minutes!"

Hannah leaned back into her seat as the waiter approached and Kevin requested another glass and a bucket of ice. A moment later he was pouring a round of drinks. A minute after that, Kevin started his story. His tongue loosened a little more with each swallow of JD.

He began by telling Hannah what had happened at 'Bushwhackers' and then what had happened when they got home. Kevin told her about Connie sleeping with him and then going to the recording studio. He confessed that he had followed her and told Hannah what he had seen.

"That's when I knew I was in love with her, Hannah, and that's when I realized she couldn't hear…"

Hannah nodded and let him go on. She learned about Kevin deleting Stephen's message and about Connie telling him that she thought it would be best if she left.

"Oh, she'd thought it all over, Hannah…" Kevin was slurring a little now and his accent was getting more 'Kentucky' by the second. "She had a thousand-hundred reasons to git out of town includin' one about her and me… you know… our 'trouble'…"

Kevin raised his brows and looked at Hannah pointedly. Hannah sighed and nodded again, indicating that she understood that Kevin was referring to their general combativeness.

"I'm tellin' you, Hannah, I felt like an eight-point buck that had been gutted. I thought my insides were gonna come up outta my mouth when she told me that it'd be best if she went back to New York…"

Hannah scowled at the image. "You paint a pretty picture, Kevin. What did you say to that?"

Kevin sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "I asked her when she was leavin'…"

"Good one!" Hannah hissed and threw an ice cube at Kevin's head. "Now it's my turn. I'm going to talk fast and you'd better listen up. You're a lot drunker than I am right now, so I hope you remember this…"

"Goddamn - I love her, Hannah…. Tell me what to do…"

"First you tell me which came first - the 'Fuck me! She's deaf!', the 'She's pretty damn hot..' or the 'I'm in looooove…'"

Kevin looked into the bottom of his empty glass considering the order of his emotional reactions to Connie O'Rourke.

"Well, to be honest, I did notice that she looked pretty good. I guess that was the first thing." Hannah was frowning. "Hey!" Kevin defended himself, "Any other guy would tell you the same thing. I'm not so different from them…"

"That statement does not impress me, Kevin…"

Kevin continued. "Then I realized that I was in love with this girl. I think I had been fightin' it. You know, she'd made me so damn mad and all… Then I found out she couldn't hear…"

"So this…this 'love' isn't based on some sympathetic reaction to learning about Connie's deafness…."

Kevin stared at Hannah through glazed eyes. "Huh?"

"Never mind."

"I know what I'm gonna do, Hannah!" Kevin declared with a renewed sense of purpose. "I'm getting' on a plane and flyin' to New York and then I'm gonna bring her little ass back down here…"

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Whoa, Mr. Caveman… You better know what you may be getting yourself into. A relationship with Connie won't be easy…."

"No shit…" Kevin interrupted as he poured another drink.

"You shut up and listen!" Hannah ordered. "I'm going to tell you stuff I have no business telling and if you ever do see Connie again, you'd better not let her find out that I told you this shit. She'll tell you herself - in time."

Hannah unloaded mightily, beginning with Connie's accident. She told Kevin how she came to meet Connie and about her fear of the dark. She told him about Connie's general bad luck with men who couldn't handle her disability and the insecurities that had grown from that. Finally, she told him about Trevor Abbott and his cruel oppression - every detail she could remember, including Connie's lack of physical response to Trevor.

Kevin looked at Hannah in disbelief. He would have never guessed that Connie's past had been so dramatic. It sounded like a nightmare. He asked specific questions about Connie's fears and Trevor's viciousness which Hannah answered to the best of her ability. After a pause, Kevin asked one last question.

"Are you telling me that she's never…"

Hannah decided to be blunt. "I'm telling you that, to my knowledge, she's been with one man and she never climaxed with him. I can think of a dozen reasons why she didn't, beginning with the reason she was with him to begin with. She probably would have been better off faking it…if she knew how."

A comfortable silence grew between them and they sat for awhile nursing their drinks. Soon Kevin's eyes were at half-mast. He was totally drunk. Hannah sighed and figured she'd wait a few more minutes for the bar to empty before she tried to get him into the car and drive him back to the house. As she looked around the expansive bar, she spotted at woman talking to the bartender and examining a menu of some sort. The woman had long red hair. Hannah's eyes grew wide and she rubbed them, trying to make sure she wasn't imagining things.

"Kevin?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah?" he mumbled as he slouched against the wall of the booth.

"After all I've told you, don't you want to reconsider your feelings?"

Kevin's eyes opened to a squint. "My feelings about Connie?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Hell, no! I'm in love with her - more now than before, if that's even possible…"

"I'm glad you said that." Hannah replied. "Kevin?"

"Huh?"

"Do you believe in fate?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Hannah?"

Hannah was looking past him, towards the entrance. Kevin watched as she smiled and nodded towards the mahogany bar.

CHAPTER 24

The bar had emptied and the bartender had left to go down to the wine cellar to fetch Connie's bottle, leaving her standing at the bar. Kevin had moved himself to the edge of the booth bench so he could turn his body and get a better look at the object of Hannah's fascination. He stared for a full minute before turning back to his drinking companion. He looked a little dumbstruck.

"How drunk I am, Hannah?"

Hannah continued to stare at Connie. "You am pretty drunk, Kev…"

"I thought so…" he nodded with great sincerity. "That girl over there looks just like Connie…"

"There's a good reason for that…" Hannah began to chuckle. Destiny had made a grand and dramatic entrance.

Kevin edged himself to the end of his seat again and began to stare around the back of the booth. Connie had turned now. She leaned her back up against dark wood and began to look around, taking in the art deco lighting and carpet. Suddenly her blue eyes fell on two green ones that were half hidden by wisps of black hair. Both pairs of eyes connected and grew wide. The head that held the green eyes leaned forward past the angle of safety and, suddenly, there was a whole body out of control and toppling off the bench into a heap on the floor.

"Kevin?" Connie ran across the room and knelt down, glancing up at Hannah as she pulled at Kevin's shoulder, trying to roll him onto his back.

Connie leaned down close. Kevin’s eyes were closed. He wasn’t moving. She began to shake his shoulders, calling to him. Kevin’s head rolled back and forth. He wasn’t responding. Hannah was sitting at the edge of the bench now, watching Connie’s revival techniques with some amusement. She didn’t offer any assistance.

“God, Hannah! What’s wrong with you? Go call 911! He’s hit his head, he’s unconscious!”

“I suspect he was unconscious before he hit the floor, Connie.” Hannah smirked and picked up the nearly empty bottle of Jack Daniels. “Believe me when I tell you that he’s feeling no pain…”

Connie narrowed her eyes. “What are you two doing here, anyway?” she hissed.

“Gee, Con… I was about to ask you the same thing….” She glanced down at Kevin and then back at the blazing blue eyes. “He’s groaning…”

Connie looked back down at Kevin’s face. His lips were moving but Connie couldn’t make out the words. His eyelids had begun to flutter. She jerked her head towards Hannah. She was laughing.

“What’s he saying?” Connie yelled.

“He’s not talking.” Hannah grinned, rubbing her eyes. “He’s singing - that old Marvin Gaye song ‘Sexual Healing’.” She reached across the table and grabbed the ice bucket which, by now, held cold water. “We gotta get him out of here before he makes the papers.”

Before Connie could protest, Hannah had poured the iced water over Kevin’s face. His song stopped mid-bridge and he began to sputter and choke. Surprisingly, he wasn’t angry. Hannah sighed, stood and wiped her hands down the front of her khakis.

“Come on.” she ordered, grabbing his right arm. “Let’s get him out of here.”

They each had an arm and had managed to pull Kevin to a sitting and then a standing position - sort of. He seemed unable to support his own weight. Hannah had started to pull him towards the private elevator that served the bar. Connie was tugging in the opposite direction, towards the entrance.

“Where are you going?” Hannah grumbled. We can’t go through the lobby. People will see him! You’ve got a room here, right?”

Connie froze. “Yeah. So what?”

“So, he’ll just have to stay in your room tonight. He’ll be okay in the morning. Just let him sleep it off in your bed.”

“No way!”

Kevin had decided to join in the discussion. He leaned down close to Connie’s face and tried to focus. “Oh, come on baby….” he pleaded. “Just for a minute… then I’ll leave. I’m sooooooo tired…”

Connie stared as Kevin tried to elicit her pity by doing a poor imitation of those wide-eyed children that are usually painted on black velvet.

"God, Connie.." Hannah scolded. "I think you owe him after that 'Terry' episode. Don't you?"

"That was different…"

"Oh, I can see the headlines now!" Hannah posed dramatically, running a free finger across an imaginary newspaper. 'Backstreet Boy Drunk During Threesome At Vinoy' or 'Pop Star Passes Out While Sharing Bottle With Lesbian'…"

"Damn, I love lesbians…" Kevin gurgled.

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, most men do…"

Connie finally relented. She and Hannah managed to get Kevin into the elevator that opened into the back of the bar and rode up to the twelfth floor. They were even able to keep Kevin upright as Connie opened her door and then walked him over to the bed where he fell backwards onto the crisp sheets that been left exposed after Connie's early evening nap. The only words he said as he lay there were 'Thank you, Jesus..' Then his eyes closed again. Hannah punched Connie in the arm.

"This is a good night to be deaf. He's snoring already…" She bent down, pulled of his shoes, dropped them on the floor and then headed towards the door.

"Please don't think about leaving me here with him. That's getting to be a pattern with you." Connie snarled.

Hannah turned and smiled. "I'm pooped, Con. He's out of it. I'll call you tomorrow…" And she was gone.

*****

Connie gazed at Kevin for a long time. She didn’t really know what to do with him. One leg dangled off the edge of the bed, a shoeless foot resting on the floor. An arm jutted off the mattress, suspended in mid-air only because the elbow does not bend backwards. The fabric of his shirt had twisted causing it to bind across his chest and Kevin, in his sleep, made a feeble attempt to free himself by pulling at the placket.

Oh God…. Connie shook her head, sighed. She would have to undress him. That’s what they do in movies and books when someone passes out…. She unbuttoned his cuffs first and then crawled up on her knees beside him to undo the buttons down the front of his shirt. That was easy enough. Kevin never moved. Now she had to get it off of him. That would be hard. Connie studied the problem with the eye of an industrial engineer. Nope. She couldn’t lift him up. She didn’t want to wake him up. She finally concluded that he would have to be lying on his stomach in order for her to have any hope of peeling the shirt off of his body.

Okay, then… I can probably get him to turn over…. But first… Shit. The pants….

Kevin liked his pants loose and baggy - which was a godsend in this situation. Connie’s eyes fell to the slender line of black hair that began at his navel and disappeared under the waistband of his cargo pants. She took a deep breath and summoned up her courage. Alrighty… Let’s get this done… When she began to unfasten his belt buckle, Kevin stirred, lifting the leg that dangled from the bed and dropping it onto the mattress. Connie froze and swallowed. He became still again and she went back to work. Suddenly a frightening thought occurred to Connie. What if he’s not wearing any underwear? She remembered reading about several rock stars who didn’t bother with the encumbrance of undergarments. Connie gently unsnapped his pants and began to slide the zipper down - ever so slowly. The dark trail of fine hair widened. Nothing. Shit…. She was about to stop when an edge of silk covered elastic came into view. Connie breathed a sigh of relief and tugged gently until the olive colored pants came down past Kevin’s hips, which he had unconsciously raised in an effort to be rid of the burdensome piece of clothing.

She crawled back off the bed then, kneeled and unrolled Kevin’s socks. Then she tugged at the hem of his pants. They slid off fairly easily. Thankfully, Kevin used his newfound freedom to roll himself over onto his stomach and Connie was able to push his arms through the sleeves of his shirt and remove it. She stood back from the bed with her hands on her hips and surveyed her handiwork. His black hair brushed against bare shoulders and his silk covered behind was now facing the ceiling. Kevin was still asleep and Connie was suddenly exhausted as well.

She was at another crossroads. What should she do? She sighed in exasperation and stepped into the bathroom carrying her small bag with her. When she stepped out a few minutes later, she wore a button-front tank top over her panties. Connie left the light on in the bathroom and cracked the door before turning out the lamps beside the bed. Then she scooted onto the mattress beside the sleeping giant.

Connie was emotionally and physically drained but sleep eluded her. She propped up a pillow and sat up against the headboard. The clock on the bedside table read 2:48 AM. She again tried to rationalize her reactions to Kevin and his to her. It was a mistake to stay in Florida. I should have gotten on that plane…. She looked over at Kevin’s prostrate form. I can’t be your ‘friend’ Kevin. I can’t….

After a few minutes, she felt Kevin shift. He was moving. Connie gasped when she felt him nuzzle up against her and wrap his arm around her midriff. She could just make out his face, thanks to the light coming through the crack in the bathroom door. His eyes were still closed. Then his hand brushed against her arm and traveled down to her fingers. In his sleep, he drew them to the hollow of his throat and murmured her name.

“Connie….”

Connie drew a deep and ragged breath. This was too much for her. She would have to leave tomorrow. It hurt too much to be around him. The tears came and she began to quietly cry.