Disclaimer: Not mine.

Helpless 10

Different Lives

When Marron arrived on the River Rat the next evening, she found the tiny table in the living room covered with a red-checkered tablecloth. A vase of yellow and red tulips stood in the middle, with a tall wineglass set on either side.

"I called Paresu and asked her to bring them over," Trunks explained when she expressed her surprised delight. "I thought it was the least I could do, seeing as how you're cooking dinner."

Marron wondered if he'd told his secretary whom it was he'd invited to dinner. She probably thought he'd asked one of his women friends.

He must have had Paresu bring him some clothes, as well, she noticed, since he wore black slacks and a red and black polo shirt. It was the first time she'd seen him out of his sweat suit, except for the first day when he'd worn the shabby robe. She wasn't prepared to find him looking so debonair and undeniably attractive.

He reminded her too much of her sisters' boyfriends. Marron never had been really comfortable around sophisticated men. Her sisters never had any trouble, always sounding so bright and witty when they fielded compliments and teasing comments with their snappy answers.

Whereas Marron invariably became tongue-tied in the presence of these attractive, confident hunks, and avoided them whenever possible. Men like that made her feel like the poor hick country cousin in comparison to her poised, glamorous, worldly sisters.

She'd always taken their good-natured teasing with a smile, but there had been many nights when she'd wished that things had been evened out a little bit better.

She felt that same awkwardness now as Trunks balanced himself against the doorframe to watch her broil the steaks. She'd chosen a soft, maroon velvet top to wear with her favorite ankle-length floral skirt. She'd always liked that outfit, but now she felt like a frump in it. Trunks probably thought she'd found it in a second hand store.

Actually, she amended; he didn't seem to notice what she was wearing. He was too intent on telling her about a camping trip he'd gone on with a girlfriend. He laughed as he described the poor woman's disastrous attempts to cook a meal over a campfire.

"She kept insisting she could do it," he said, chuckling at the memory, "but an hour later the steaks were still red raw and covered with ash. We ended up driving twenty-five miles to the nearest town to find a restaurant."

"She must have been horribly embarrassed," Marron said, deftly flipping the steaks on the broiler pan.

"I doubt it, Trunks said carelessly. "She wasn't the type to worry about stuff like that."

"What happened to her?"

"Huh?" He looked puzzled.

Marron gave him a pitying look. "Where is she now?"

"I don't know. Running around somewhere, I guess. I don't keep track of her."

Or any of his women after he'd finished with them, Marron presumed. She wondered just exactly how many broken hearts he'd left by the wayside.

It wasn't her place to judge him, she reminded herself, as she briskly tossed the salad in the large wooden bowl she'd brought along. What Trunks did in his private life was none of her business.

She might not approve of his lifestyle, or his attitude toward women, but it wasn't her place to tell him so. If women were silly enough to fall for his good looks and smooth talk, that was their choice.

She almost fell for his blarney herself when he bit into his steak with a murmur of appreciation. "This is fantastic," he announced. "Where did you learn to cook like this?"

She had to remind herself that Trunks would go to great lengths to flatter her if it meant he had someone to cook his meals for him. She had deliberately sounded offhand when she said, "I cooked for my family nearly all the time. I had plenty of practice."

"Your mother didn't cook?"

"Sometimes. Usually weekends. But both Daddy and Mom worked long hours, so I usually cooked the meals during the week."

"What about your sisters? Didn't they cook?"

She shrugged. "I was the eldest, I guess everyone got used to me doing it. I didn't mind that much. I really like to cook."

He offered her some more wine, but she shook her head. One glass was quite enough when she had to drive home.

"It must have been tough to leave a big family like that," he said after he'd refilled his glass. "What brought you to Pisces?"

"A dream." She dug her fork into her salad, avoiding his gaze. She didn't really want to discuss such a personal issue with him. He'd probably think she was crazy.

"What kind of dream?"

"Something I would like to do one day."

"Can you tell me, or is it illegal."

She had to laugh at that. "Not as far as I know." To her surprise, she found herself telling him about it. "I've had this dream for a long time. I want to run a shelter for runaway teens."

He looked impressed, and not at all skeptical. "That's quite an undertaking."

She shrugged. "I know. But I happen to think it's important for young people to have somewhere to go when they've been driven out of their homes for whatever reason. Everybody needs to feel that somebody cares about them. If you give someone love and understanding, sooner or later they'll respond."

He was silent for a long moment, while she concentrated on her salad, praying he wouldn't recite all the impracticalities of her idea. He sounded a little odd when he said finally, "That's some dream. Somehow I think you'll make it."

She looked up, and caught a fleeting look of wistfulness before he erased it with a smile.

"I guess it will take a long time," she said, still toying with her salad. "That's why I left my hometown. There just aren't that many opportunities there. So, I decided to come to the city and sign on as a temp. I'm temping. I'm hoping that I'll get an offer from one of the big corporations. I want to take some classes in the fall. When I'm ready I'll look for work and maybe one day I'll end up with my own house."

"Good thinking," Trunks said, sounding briskly professional for a change. "That's very solid strategy. I might even be able to help you with that."

"Really?" She felt a spasm of excitement. "It will take a lot of hard work and sacrifice, I know. I can probably forget about getting married. There aren't many men out there who would be willing to share their home with a bunch of troubled teenagers. But that's okay, I'll have my dream, even if I do have to make it alone."

Trunks had gone very still. He was silent for a long moment, looking at her with eyes so intense she felt her pulse leap. She felt uncomfortable, but couldn't seem to pull her gaze away from the absorbed look on his face.

Everything sounded very loud all of a sudden, raindrops spattering on the windows, the creak of the houseboat's weathered timbers, and the thunder of her own heartbeat in her ears.

"That would be a terrible waste," Trunks said quietly.

She wasn't sure how to answer him. He'd sounded sincere, yet she knew, only too well, how easily flattering phrases fell from his lips. Deciding it was time to change the subject, she asked lightly, "What about your family? Do they live here in Pisces?"

She was shocked at the change in him. He muttered a curt, "No," and pushed his chair back.

Aware that her question had caused his distress, she tried frantically to think of something to say. The words seemed frozen in her head. Before she could recover he added, "I don't suppose you brought dessert with you? Don't worry if not, there's plenty of ice cream in the freezer."

Automatically she started to rise, but he stopped her with a sharp gesture. "Stay there. I'll get it."

She watched him hobble into the kitchen on his crutches, too stunned to protest. Her heart raced as she tried to imagine what could have caused that awful look. There was no doubt that at some time in his past, Trunks had suffered a terrible tragedy of some kind. One that was obviously too painful for him to talk about.

But he needed to talk about it. Only by facing the demons, her father said many times, do you get rid of them. Trunks needed someone to trust and confide him someone who would love him enough to understand and help him overcome his grief.

What Trunks really needed, Marron decided then and there, was a woman who would give him the security and contentment he needed to forget his wild, reckless ways. All those casual flings were not doing him any good at all. He needed some stability in his life.

But he needed to change his ways if he was going to find someone who would really care about him. What he really needed right now was for a compassionate person to take him in hand and show him where he was going wrong.

And there wasn't a better person to do it than Marron Chestnut.

By the time Trunks returned with a carton of ice cream and two spoons, she was already planning her first strategy. She had no doubt that Trunks Briefs presented a formidable challenge. She had yet to meet a more cynical, impudent daredevil, and he would not be easy to tame.

But Marron thrived on challenges. She'd met enough of them while helping to raise her three brothers, and she wasn't going to let one misguided, black-hearted rebel spoil her record. She'd just have too forget that Trunks was several years older than her, a good deal richer than her and had a reputation that would make even her brothers wince.

He was someone who badly needed help, and she could not turn her back on a lost soul. "You seem to be managing much better with your crutches now," she said, taking the spoon he offered her.

"It gets easier with practice. Besides, it's not the first time I've had to use the damn things. I smashed up my knee pretty badly a couple of years ago and was on crutches for weeks."

She watched him settle himself on his chair again then dug into the ice cream. "How did you hurt your knee?"

"I was learning to sky dive. I forgot to bend my knees when I landed."

She shuddered. "Do you think you could manage well enough to take a trip in the car tomorrow?"

His light blue eyes gleamed with anticipation. "Do you feel up to talking to me?"

"I don't see why not." She studied the mound of ice cream on her spoon. "There are no steps between here and the car, and all you have to do is sit once we get you in there." She frowned. "Aren't you supposed to be going for checkups or something?"

"Next week."

"How were you going to get there?"

He waved his spoon at her. "I was going to call a cab, but now you can take me."

"Where is your car? I haven't seen one parked outside anywhere."

"I let it at the ski lodge. Someone will drive it back to town, I guess."

"You guess?" Her eyes opened wide, remembering the cars described in the article. "How could you leave an expensive car sitting around like that without making sure someone would take care of it?"

Trunks shrugged and licked his spoon. "I wasn't thinking about cars when they loaded me into the ambulance. Don't worry, Hikaru probably drove it home." He wrinkled his brow. "I think her name was Hikaru. Or Hikari. No, Hikaru. I think." He grinned. "Close enough, anyway."

Marron laid down her spoon, not at all sure that he was joking. Lesson number one was clearly in order. "No, it's not close enough," she said sternly. "If you're taking a young lady out for the day the least you can do is remember her name."

Trunks dug his spoon back into the ice cream. "In the first place, she's not that young a lady. She's older than I am. In the second place, it wasn't just the day out. It was the entire weekend. In the first place, even if I hadn't broken my ankle, I would have come up with a way to end the relationship."

Marron almost lost her nerve. After all, none of this was her business. But then, if she was going to save Trunks' soul, she would have to make it her business. She made her voice sound as casual as possible when she asked, "Is that the same lady who was searching the hospital for you, desperately worried about what had happened to you?"

"The only thing that lady was worried about," Trunks muttered, "was who was going to pay for the weekend at the ski lodge."

Marron gasped. "You left without paying?"

"I was unconscious at the time." Trunks licked his spoon again and laid it on the table. "Why am I being cross-examined? You don't happen to know Hikaru, or whatever her name is, do you? She's not your best friend or something?"

Marron felt her cheeks growing warm, but she stuck gamely to her guns. "No, of course not. I just think you treated her pretty badly, that's all. I don't think any woman deserves to be treated like that." She squirmed under trunks' intense stare.

"Is that so," he murmured with just a trace of sarcasm.

"That's my opinion, yes."

She stared at him defiantly, expecting him to tell her to mind her own business. Instead he surprised her by giving her a rueful smile. "You don't approve of me, do you?"

"I don't approve of your attitude toward women, now that you mention it."

"They don't seem to mind too much."

"Until you dump them?"

"I don't dump them. I simply end a relationship I didn't want in the first place."

"Then why start one?"

"I'm not a monk. I happen to like female companionship. The problems starts when women want some more than I'm willing to give them."

"Like a lasting relationship for instance."

"I don't believe in lasting relationships." He tilted his head to one side and gave her a crooked grin. "After all, why buy the book when you can borrow it from the library? You get a lot more to read that way."

She scowled, suspecting him of deliberately baiting her. "That's disgusting."

"I expect you to say that." He shook his head in mock disbelief. "Why the hell am I telling you all this, anyway?"

"Because I'm not a threat to your bachelor status. You can be completely honest with me, whereas you can't with your girlfriends."

He stared at her in amazement. "You're not a shrink, are you?" Paresu didn't pull a fast one on me and send me a therapist?"

"I've never even spoken to Paresu," Marron said serenely. "I'm not involved in your life, so I can see things more clearly, that's all. One day you'll regret living the way you do, that's if you don't kill yourself first. You can't go on jumping out of planes and throwing yourself down mountains. Eventually you'll end up seriously injuring yourself, or worse."

"And if I do," Trunks said evenly, "there'll be no one to mourn me. So it's all relative."

Sensing that she'd gone as far as she dared for now, Marron dropped the subject and suggested they get out the Scrabble board.

She enjoyed the game, finding Trunks to be a worthy opponent considering he hadn't played before. He attempted to cheat a couple of times, but graciously gave in when she challenged him.

She won by fifty-three points, much to Trunks' disgust. He immediately demanded a rematch, but a glance at the clock told her it was time to leave.

"You'll get another chance another day," she promised him, "but I have to go home and get some sleep if I'm taking you tomorrow."

"I hope you're keeping track of all your hours," Trunks said, watching her pull on her jacket. "I'll be paying you overtime. The weekend is on me."

"I can't let you act as nursemaid for me without some kind of payment."

"You can pay for the hamburgers tomorrow." She pulled open the door and looked back at him. "I'll be back around ten to pick you up. Please try not to burn the house dawn before I get here."

He gave her a cheeky grin. "You're not going to tuck me up in bed before you go?"

"I think you can manage that by yourself." She closed the door, smiling to herself. The smile, and the warm glow inside, lasted all the way home.

Our anniversary week was great! Lots of food, Japanese movies and bishis! Unfortunately, they weren't the ones that we would all die for. Hehehe. But it was still great. Maki. yum.

Happy birthday to Vid! He is the most adorable little thing that a girl could wish for. Also to Ura-Ura! Feed me! Where's the food?

Thanks again for the reviews. Ja ne!