Whistling in the Dark Page 11

  "Everyone may have a turn," Theo said. "And if you make it all the way around the circle with no forfeits, you may have a song, joke, or kiss from anyone you choose. All agreed?"

  "Oh do let me ask first," Miles said as Lewis took center stage. "How many bad reviews did you get for your Hamlet?"

  "They're meant to be cruel questions, then?" Lewis inquired of Theo, who appeared to be suppressing a grin with some difficulty.

  "I'll rephrase it," Miles cut in, hands upraised. "How many good reviews did you get?"

  At everyone's half-stifled giggles, Lewis smiled thinly. "Three. And not merely good, but excellent."

  More laughter bubbled, along with assuaging applause. Theo patted Sutton's knee. "Your turn, my dear."

  Caught unprepared, Sutton blurted out the first question that came to mind. "Have you ever been in love?"

  Theo threw an arm around Sutton's shoulders. "A true romantic. I should like to hear the answer to that, myself."

  "I have." Lewis looked forlorn. "Several times, in fact. Tragically. Always tragically."

  "That would be with someone other than yourself?" Miles asked.

  "Miles, you're heartless," Theo said, preempting Lewis' retort. "My turn, and I have a perfectly delectable one. Have you ever broken someone's heart?"

  Lewis snorted. "Wouldn't I first have to be involved with a man in possession of one?"

  All turned Jack, who smiled. "I'd prove it exists, but I think I lost the pawn ticket."

  The laughter that followed chastised Lewis. Questions came rapid-fire then, Lewis bravely answering each until it was up to Jack. "Have you ever been arrested for indecency?"

  Soft gasps followed and Lewis sniffed in disgust. "Trust you to turn it into something vulgar. Really, Theo, we're going to put up with this?"

  Theo looked reprovingly at Jack, but the light in his eyes was good-humored. "Now, boys, it's all in fun."

  Jack's smile gained a wicked edge. "I wouldn't ask anything I'd never answer, myself. Forfeit?"

  "I won't dignify that lurid question with any sort of response," Lewis said. "But good sport that I am, I'll play along and forfeit."

  Theo looked relieved. "Song, joke, or kiss?"

  Lewis' smile turned as wicked as Jack's, with a sour edge Sutton didn't like. "A song, I think. Quite the popular one." He drew back his shoulders and sang in a pleasant bass. "'Smile the while you kiss me sad adieu. When the clouds roll by, I'll come to you. Then the skies will seem more blue--'"

  Theo interrupted with hurried applause. "Wasn't that lovely? Shall we have one of the ladies next? Amelia?" He said it almost pleadingly.

  "It appears the days of the patriotic sing are over," Lewis said. "Think I'll go dance, instead, and leave you to your gutter games."

  Sutton was glad Theo had put an end to it. No song in the world could hurt the heart like that one. It would have cast a lingering gloom over the evening for everyone. Still, he wanted to feel sorry for Lewis. He could never have answered Jack's question, himself, without dying of mortification. If only Lewis hadn't seemed so intent on unsettling Jack--

  But Jack wasn't unsettled, judging by his bright grin as he coerced Amelia onto her feet. Further, it was clear he had inspired the others to new heights of mischief when Amelia quickly ended up with a forfeit as well. She thought for a moment and came up with a riddle. "Why is a woman's heart like the moon? Because it changes constantly and always has a man in it."

  "Always?" At Theo's sly smile, Amelia went scarlet. The champagne bottle came around the circle and Theo filled his glass and Sutton's. "Jack, since you've got us all behaving so deplorably, I think it's your turn."

  A chorus of agreement rose. Jack obligingly hopped to his feet. "Go ahead. Do your worst."

  "Have you ever been arrested for indecency?" Theo asked. Judging by his dry tone and the anticipation in everyone's face, Sutton guessed most of them already knew the answer. But Jack offered it without hesitation.

  "Three times." He paused. "You did mean this past year?"

  That set everyone off so spiritedly, dancers out on the floor looked to see what the commotion was about. Miles nudged Sutton with an elbow. "He'll make it all the way around. You just wait."

  Jack answered every question fired at him as promptly as the first. The questions began to come at a slower pace, each more artfully designed than the last.

  "If you had an hour left to live," Miles asked, "what would you do with it?"

  The question spurred several of the women to clap their hands over their ears. Theo groaned. "Oh, my dear, you'll have the SSV after all of us in a minute."

  "The SSV?" Sutton whispered to Miles.

  Miles blinked in surprise. "Society for the Suppression of Vice."

  Sutton laughed, feeling a little light-headed--dreamily light-headed and happy. He'd had too much champagne, a fact that didn't particularly disturb him at the moment, though he knew it would later. Jack's sly grin softened and Sutton sensed that the answer everyone awaited in delicious horror would not be the one Jack gave.

  "If I had an hour left, I'd spend it with Harry, Ox, and Esther. And an expensive bottle of whiskey."

  In the midst of appreciative laughter, Sutton asked the final question. "How would you spend the last dollar in your pocket?"

  Jack's grin stretched from ear to ear. "A bottle of bootleg whiskey?"

  Sutton shook his head. "Forfeit."

  Jack looked ready to argue. Then he laughed. "Oh, hell, I guess you know better. It'd all go to vacuum tubes. One of them, anyway," he added with a rueful grimace.

  "Bravo, Sutton," Theo said. "All right, Jack, my boy. Song, joke, or kiss?"

  "A pity Lewis left," Miles murmured and Jack shook a fist at him in mock threat.

  Theo's eyes sparkled. "As the host of this glorious shindig, I shall have to choose a suitable partner for Jack."

  Jack feigned chagrin. "Is it too late to tell a joke?"

  "You'll have to ask Sutton," Theo said, "after you've kissed him."

  - Fifteen -

  Jack's expression of surprise lasted only an instant before a wicked leer took its place. As he sauntered over, Sutton's heart seemed to quicken to 2/2 time. He didn't know if Jack felt the same attraction, the one coursing with sudden heat through his blood. He wanted to think so--but Jack seemed to play to the crowd as he dropped onto Sutton's lap and, draping both arms around his shoulders, drew closer for a kiss. Jack's breath warm in his face reminded him to breathe and he did so, audibly. But at the last second, Jack brushed his forehead with a brotherly buss and everyone exclaimed in good-natured protest.

  Jack was unrepentant. "That's how they kiss in Kansas," he said and turned laughing eyes back to Sutton. "Tell 'em, Mabel."

  Deciding to correct that misapprehension, Sutton took him by the lapels and kissed him. He could feel Jack's initial shock in the lack of response. Then Jack kissed back, sparking something neither of them could blame on the champagne. His momentum dropped them backward to the pillows, Jack still kissing him as if he never wanted to stop, and Sutton didn't mind in the least if it went on forever. He ignored the whoops and whistles from their audience and Jack did too, until Theo stuck his nose in. "Would you gentlemen care for the key to my apartment?"

  Jack broke from the kiss, meeting Sutton's gaze for barely an instant before turning to smirk at Theo. "Satisfied?"

  Theo looked only more amused. "Just what I was about to ask you."

  Disentangling themselves, they sat up and Jack made a show of straightening Sutton's coat and tie before rising to swagger back to his spot. Sutton avoided all the laughing faces and wondered if he'd gone too far. No one else seemed to think so or care, so he tried not to care, either. But he couldn't bring himself to look Jack's way until the game had broken up and the others had returned to dancing. By then, Jack had vanished in the crowd and before Sutton could look for him, Theo pounced to ask without pretense this time if he would play the piano again.

  - - -

  It was after
midnight when Sutton wandered to the edge of the roof for a little fresh air and a sumptuous view. A welcome breeze blew in his face along the shadowed walk behind the palms. He found Jack leaning on the parapet, his features in unusually quiet repose as he took in the view. Unbidden came the thought that Jack was terribly handsome and rather dear, besides.

  Jack looked around at his approach and smiled easily. "You ready to go home?"

  "No, I just wanted to--well, I hope I didn't embarrass you earlier. In the game," he added, at Jack's puzzled look.

  "Oh, that?" Jack laughed. "Nothing to worry about. Unless Topeka law says we're engaged."

  "Not even promised. In our case, anyway." He felt foolish. The kiss had been part of a silly game. He shouldn't have brought it up.

  "Champagne?" Jack picked up the bottle on the ledge and filled his empty glass.

  "No, thank you. I think I'm done with that or I'll be sick."

  Jack downed the glassful. "You've been to fancier parties than this. Your folks must throw some real hummers."

  "Yes, just--decidedly different." He shuddered to imagine what his parents would think of the goings-on at Theo's.

  "No kissing? Or dancing?"

  "Dancing, of course. But of the proper sort."

  Jack rolled his eyes. "A party's no place to be proper. Your folks don't know you dance with boys?"

  "I never have," Sutton said, then realized Jack meant more than dancing.

  "You always blush that easily?" Jack grabbed his hands and whirled him around in an unsteady circle.

  "Jack, for heaven's sake." But he couldn't keep from laughing.

  "You can't fox-trot worth a damn, Mabel."

  "Is that what you're trying to do?"

  "Smug bastard." Jack grinned and pushed him. "You don't even know how to get good and drunk. I think you met me just in time."

  "I think you met me just in time," Sutton said, pulling him away as Jack leaned over the ledge. "Sit down before you wind up on the pavement."

  "Think I've had enough?" Jack upended the bottle and the wind sprayed the last of the champagne to the street. "Do you think anyone will notice it's raining booze?"

  "The police, perhaps." Sutton let him lean, but kept a hand wrapped around his coat-tail just in case.

  Jack slumped, resting his chin on his arms. "Ever imagine what it would be like to just slip right over and fall all that way to the ground?"

  Traffic still trundled along the road and people scurried along the sidewalks wrapped up in their own thoughts and worries. "It would be quick," Sutton mused. "Once you let go."

  Jack's eyes were dark, unreadable. "Quick. That's what they always ask. Whether we got blown to bits or took a bullet, they want to know--was it quick?"

  Sutton eased the bottle out of Jack's grip before it went down to the street, too. "Come have cake and I'll teach you to properly fox-trot."

  A corner of Jack's mouth lifted. "Can you call it proper if you're only teaching me?"

  "I'm not sure anything can be called proper where you're concerned. But I'll make do."

  - - -

  They reached the arbor just as the rain began. There they huddled, eating cake and watching as a few stalwart souls continued to dance in the increasing drizzle. It was only when lightning streaked across the sky that Theo called a halt and everyone proceeded to cover the furniture, roll up the rugs, and push the piano indoors to the landing.

  Sutton was given an armful of albums to transport and he proceeded down a dark stairwell with the other guests, all damp, laughing, and loud enough to wake everyone in the building. Jack, a champagne bottle in each hand, stumbled behind him. Sutton heard him trip and instinctively braced himself to keep them both from falling. Jack bumped against him and wrapped his arms over Sutton's shoulders, kissing the back of his neck. "You're slowing the line, Albright. Quick march now. Left, right, left, right."

  The girls behind Jack giggled. Sutton smiled ruefully into the darkness. True enough that Jack was a terrible flirt and none of it to be taken seriously, but Sutton worried over how susceptible he felt. "My quick march may leave you flat on your face," he said, keeping up the spirit of the moment. "Hold on tight."

  Jack did, with a clink of champagne bottles, as Sutton bounded down the remaining steps and through Theo's doorway. Someone had started another record and couples danced in the dim but warm front room. Theo left them to it, taking Jack and Sutton into the kitchen to ply them with tea and sandwiches. "I can't send you two home in this weather. Stay over and you can bunk with me."

  The licentious grin that accompanied that suggestion made Sutton laugh. Theo looked pleased. "Jack, I think we've gotten him over his blushes. A pity. So few fellows still blush after their stint in France. Now both of you look sleepy as cats. Let me put you up for the night."

  Sutton wouldn't have minded, but Jack was set against it. When the storm had eased into a steady rain, they borrowed an umbrella and traipsed the few blocks home. Except for the motorcars sloshing past, it was a quiet walk. Jack seemed tired and Sutton, as weary, stayed in his own thoughts.

  They found a chilly apartment waiting for them and Sutton half-wished they had stayed at Theo's. With a muttered good night, Jack disappeared into his room. Sutton, after a futile search of the kitchen for a hot water bottle, crawled into cold sheets and tried to get to sleep. Moments at the party--in particular, that kiss--kept playing in his mind alongside worries about his radio performance, but he drifted off--only to jolt awake at the sound of a crash from somewhere beyond his door.

  Remembering the hoodlums who were after Jack, he scrambled out of bed and looked around for some means of defense. A slim wooden pole wrapped with wire stood in the corner behind the radio. Taking it, Sutton crept into the front room and saw by the light coming in from the street that no one had broken in.

  Concerned, he tapped at Jack's door and when there was no answer, peeked inside. The bed stood empty and he stared in bewilderment. Jack surely hadn't gone out again. The rustle of sheets from somewhere on the other side of the bed heightened his concern and he came into the room to look around. He found Jack huddled in the narrow space between the bed and the wall, head buried in his arms.

  "Jack?" Sutton crept nearer. "What's wrong? Are you ill?"

  Jack gave no sign of hearing him and, alarmed, Sutton touched his shoulder, to feel skin much too cool. He reached for the dressing gown lying at the foot of the mattress, then realized his would be warmer. "Jack, what are you doing out of bed?" He took off his gown and draped it over Jack's shoulders. "I can go for a doctor, if you--"

  Jack lifted his head from his arms and stared past Sutton. Something in his face compelled Sutton to lower his voice to a whisper. "Did you have a nightmare?"

  Jack's eyes were wide and dark. "Listen."

  "Listen? To what? Jack, you've got to go back to bed or you'll be down with pneumonia--"

  "Can't leave my post," Jack whispered.

  Sutton felt suddenly chilled, himself. "Jack--you're home. That's all done. You're home now."

  Jack's mouth twisted, his eyes an agonized gleam in the darkness. Sutton stared at him helplessly. "Jack, listen to me." He hesitated, fearful of making things worse, but he didn't know what to do. "Jack, you're relieved. I've come to tell you. You're to get some rest. All right?"

  He didn't dare hope it would work, but Jack allowed himself to be maneuvered from floor to bed. Once there, he wouldn't lie still. Sutton coaxed him into a restless huddle with both arms wrapped around a pillow and his head on Sutton's knee.

  After a while came a plaintive, "Sutton?"

  He didn't sound very sure, but Sutton was just glad to find him lucid again. "Yes?"

  "I need a drink."

  He could barely stay awake and he wanted a drink. Sutton couldn't blame him for it. "Close your eyes."

  He brushed a soothing hand over Jack's forehead. Jack closed his eyes, then opened them again. He twisted onto his side and lay there, his face buried in Sutton's pajamas. "You smel
l like Rinso."

  "That's what comes of trying to clean clothes in Ida's old washtub," Sutton said and smiled at Jack's muffled laugh.

  "So have you?" The query was soft, riding on a weary exhalation. Sutton shivered pleasantly at the breath warm on his skin. Maybe he was still drifting from the champagne, but it felt good. He focused on Jack's question, sensing it had nothing to do with laundry.

  "Have I what?" he asked.

  "Been in love," Jack said with faint impatience.

  Sutton might have easily answered a few weeks ago. Now he couldn't say whether he even knew what it meant. "I thought--well, to be honest, I don't know."

  "What the hell kind of answer is that?" Jack's lashes fluttered with one final effort, then exhaustion won out. His chest rose and fell with the even pattern of sleep. His fingers stayed wrapped around a handful of Sutton's shirt.

  Sutton let out a not so steady breath of his own. "The truth."

  - Sixteen -

  Jack woke to a warm weight against his back and soft snoring in his ear. He knew he hadn't brought anyone home with him from Theo's party. Anyone besides Sutton. Easing over, he noted with relief the pajamas Sutton wore. He didn't think he and Sutton had done anything last night to warrant the removal of them--though after that kiss at the party, they could well have.

  Slipping to the edge of the mattress, he rose, and then padded down the hall to the bathroom. He had no doubt Sutton felt something more toward him than simple gratitude. And maybe he felt the same attraction, but yielding to it could cause more problems than he wanted to consider. He would just have to find ways to keep from yielding. Not with Lewis, of course. That had gotten ugly fast. What he needed was a regular spree--boys, booze, and Broadway, as Theo liked to say--so he could come home too exhausted for anything but sleep.