Lisa also put down her fork and poured them each more wine. “It is an odd situation.” Looking down into her glass, as if reading the future, she said, “I’m sure that Theo likes Beth a lot, too. No, more than that.” Raising her head, Lisa took a deep breath and said, “I think Theo has been in love with Beth since high school. And the way the two of them looked together when they were holding hands, walking in the rain—they were glowing. They were so happy. Oh, Mack, I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to get in their way.”
“But I don’t want to lose the chance to be with you.”
Lisa nodded. She felt her cheeks flame. “I want to be with you, Mack. But I don’t really know what that means.”
“It means we see each other exclusively and get to know one another better and maybe we’ll get married someday.”
Lisa was speechless.
“That’s what I want,” Mack said, “and I think that’s what you want, too. I want us to live together for the rest of our lives.”
“But, Mack,” Lisa said, her face crimson, “we don’t even know if we are compatible…in bed.”
Mack smiled. “Yes, we do. I’m more aroused by you in the kitchen with a pan of lasagna than I have been in any other situation, with any other woman, for years. We’re magnetic, you and I. And we’ll do very nicely in bed.”
Lisa flushed, her heart racing. After a minute, she asked, “Would you like more lasagna?”
“Yes, but not now,” Mack said.
She looked at him, puzzled.
“Right now I’d like to drive you out to see a house we just signed on to renovate.”
“Okay…”
“It’s got a great view. No one is living there. I’m subcontracting it from the Redford Corporation. It has some furniture, and running water, but I think the electricity has been cut.” He added softly, “It’s an interesting house. An empty house, with no one coming or going.”
“Oh,” Lisa said, breathing out the word. Here it was, the decision, to be with Mack without interruptions by anyone. She met his eyes across the table and felt his desire as if it were a flame. “Yes, I’d like to…see that.”
They stood up. She glanced around the kitchen. “I should put the lasagna away…”
“We can do it later,” Mack told her, and held out his hand.
Lisa followed him to his truck and sat on the long bench seat in the cab. The air was sultry. A wind was beginning to rise. The sun hadn’t set but the sky was dark with clouds.
Mack drove them out of town, onto the Madaket Road, and on out west before turning right on a narrow dirt road. An elegant modern house cast a low silhouette on the horizon. Bushes and scrub oak covered the surrounding land in green.
Mack handed Lisa down from the truck and led her to the front door.
“There’s an alarm,” he said. “I know the code.”
Once they were inside the house with the door safely shut against intruders, Lisa felt herself relax. The house itself was spare and sparse, the interior minimalist, the floors and walls in shades of gray and taupe.
“Let me show you around,” Mack said, taking Lisa’s hand. He led her upstairs, to the empty bedrooms and baths. The master bedroom had a balcony overlooking the lawn and the swimming pool. Back downstairs, she saw the open plan living and dining room and the enormous kitchen.
“This is a marvelous house,” Lisa said. “What could they possibly want renovated?”
“They want the living room turned into an entertainment room with a seventy-five-inch television and super speakers. They want the dining room extended to form an outdoor eating area near the pool. And other, smaller changes.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to change a thing.”
In a low voice, Mack said, “I’d like to change something.”
Lisa faced him, trembling. “It’s different, you know, simply to be in this neutral space with you. It seems we’re always in my house or yours, always on guard for someone to barge in.”
“I know. But here, we’re alone, and safe.” Mack ran his fingers just above her ear, smoothing her hair back, his touch light and gentle.
“Mack.” She put her hands on his chest. She tilted her face up for a kiss.
Mack wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him, kissing her for a long time. “Want to do this?” he asked.
“I do. Oh, I do. But, Mack, where? There are no beds…”
Mack grinned. Taking her hand, he led her to the back hallway. “Our suite tonight includes two grade-A swim floats of vinyl coated foam, complete with full circle pillow. In addition, we have a selection of super-size beach towels.”
“Are you kidding?” Lisa asked.
“I’m not kidding,” Mack said.
The floats had been stacked on their sides against the wall. Mack pulled them out into the dining room, laid them side by side, and covered them with the beach towels.
“But, Mack, this is something a teenager would do.” Lisa was laughing and thrilled and terrified.
“Exactly,” Mack said.
He approached her and pulled her down onto the twin-mattress-sized floats. They were surprisingly sturdy and comfortable. He eased her back so that her neck rested on the swim pillow, and he began kissing her on her ears, her cheeks, her neck. The light from outdoors was fading, and no shadows moved. It was like lying inside a rain cloud, dark and spangling with mysterious energy.
She felt his body press against hers. Oh, sweet lovely sensation, she’d forgotten this—had she ever known this? She helped him pull off his shirt, and in the dim light she noticed his muscular torso, scarred lightly here and there from, he told her, work accidents. He took off his shoes and socks and pants and his boxer shorts. Finally it was her turn, and she allowed him to tug her sundress up over her head. She quickly dealt with the business of removing her bra and panties, and then there she was naked before him.
She thought she would want to run away or hide her imperfect body with its extra cellulite and slight sags, but the touch of Mack’s hand transformed all of her body that she’d disparaged into a creation she’d forgotten about. She was a magical vessel of sensations. Her heart raced, her breath shuddered, her limbs, smooth, round, and feminine, slid against Mack’s rough, hairy, muscular limbs, and her body went right ahead without her conscious thought or worry, into a world of pleasure, and more pleasure, and then joy.
Afterward, lying there together, sweating and cooling, beach towels puddled around them, Lisa said, “Mack? I think I’d like to marry you. Someday.”