The Smoke Jumper Read Online Free Page B

boyfriend (who, to be fair, didn’t much resemble an ape after all) was ordering drinks and while he was busy doing that she sat upright on her stool, stretching her back and long neck and looking around the room. Ed watched her.
    She stretched her neck and dragged her hands back through her hair in a gesture that presumably had some practical purpose, such as untangling it perhaps, and another woman might have made it look like preening. But with her it seemed entirely without vanity. And one of the sexiest things Ed had ever seen.
    Suddenly he realized that she was staring right back at him and a slow smile of recognition spread across her face. And, in what he would later call a moment of pure genius, Ed started to play a number from his last (never performed and doubly rejected) musical. It was a smoochy, late-night love song that ‘owed perhaps a tad too much’ to Tom Waits. It was called ‘Your Place or Mine.’ The chorus went:
    We’ve finished the whiskey,
Let’s finish the wine.
I feel kinda frisky,
Is it your place or mine?
    He kept his eyes on her while he sang. Her boyfriend didn’t seem to mind. He was enjoying the joke too and when Ed had finished the guy raised his glass in a toast and sent Leanne over with a drink. Ed went on with the set, playing any song he could think of that was vaguely relevant, changing a lyric here and there to make her laugh. He played ‘We’ve Gotta Get (You) Out of This Place’ and ‘Somewhere There’s a Place for (You)’ from West Side Story . He felt inspired, empowered. The audience was great, joining in a joke they didn’t even understand. He was playing only for her, the woman whose wipers he still had in his coat pocket. So he was more than a little disappointed when he was just halfway through ‘Lovely Rita, Meter Maid,’ to see her stand up and start putting on her ski jacket. Then he saw they were coming toward him.
    They waited on the far side of the piano until he’d finished. She looked sheepish. Ed finished the song and while the applause rippled around them he nodded at her.
    ‘That was funny,’ she said. ‘You’re good.’
    ‘It’s true, I admit it. Thank you.’
    ‘Listen, I’m really sorry about what happened. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never done anything like that before in my life.’
    ‘It was my fault,’ the boyfriend cut in. ‘I made her do it. It’s just, you know, we were late for the movie and, well, anyhow, we’re . . . sorry.’
    Ed nodded without looking at him. He couldn’t take his eyes off the woman. God, she was gorgeous. Then he realized they were waiting for him to reply.
    ‘Well, thanks,’ he said. ‘I mean, hey, look at it this way. I got a free biology lesson.’
    His coat was hanging on the back of his chair and he reached into the damp pocket, found the wipers and held them out to her.
    ‘Here.’
    She frowned.
    ‘You haven’t been back to your car yet?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Well, I think you’ll find you need these.’
    She gave him a wry smile and took them. The boyfriend laughed.
    ‘Quits?’ Ed said.
    She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Well, we’ll have to see about that.’
    ‘I tell you if you didn’t have such a big boyfriend, you’d have really been in trouble.’
    ‘This is my cousin David.’
    They were the sweetest words Ed had heard all day. He held out his hand.
    ‘Edward Tully. Pleased to meet you.’
    David said he was pleased to meet him too. The guy had a handshake like a steam press. Ed turned to the woman with whom he was already in love and offered his hand and she took it in hers.
    ‘Rita,’ she said.
    Ed hesitated, holding onto her hand. It felt cool and delicious. Rita? Was it possible? She laughed.
    ‘Okay, Julia. Julia Bishop.’
    ‘Hey, Ed!’ Bryan was calling from the bar. ‘If music be the food of love, get the hell on with it.’
    ‘He’s such a romantic,’ Ed said.
    She smiled and said sorry again and then they all said goodbye and she and her cousin