The next day Laura and James had lunch at an Indian restaurant they both liked, not the one where he saw her having dinner with Franco a couple of years before.
While waiting for their food to arrive James nervously tapped his fingers on the table. If it had been anyone else, Laura would have asked him to stop.
To lessen the tension Laura initiated a post-mortem of their bridge playing from the night before, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses.
"James, you played brilliantly especially considering it was your first time."
"Sorry about the hand I bid 3 No Trump when I should have opted for 4 Spades. The best play would have been a 5-3 spade fit."
"No problem. My one rule for bridge partners is to forgive both their mistakes and my own." That applies to mothers and sons too. "I hope you'll want to do that again sometime."
"I would, actually. And I'll try to be more consistent with my bidding."
"The only truly consistent people are corpses."
"Can I quote you on that Dr. Hobson?" They both smiled and could feel the tension lessening.
Someone they knew from work came into the restaurant to pick up a takeaway. She waved at them and displayed a curious expression at finding them together. Then she seemed to shrug it off and left with her food.
"James, I expect that if anyone other than Robbie knew that we kept silent about our connection for three years, they would find it odd."
You mean the fact that I knew that you knew and then you found out that I knew you knew that I knew..." He hid a smile under his serious look.
"When you put it like that, it sounds perfectly sane." She laughed quietly. "Robbie is the only person who knows both of us well enough to understand."
Their food arrived and they started to eat. After a few minutes of silence James had a question for her.
"If he hadn't told you I knew would you have figured it out?"
"I might have. I did notice that you behaved differently towards me at times."
"How so?"
"Well, for example, the day the body of a friar was found buried up to his neck in the woods, you helped me get my arm out of the sleeve of my crime scene suit. Even Robbie never did that until very recently."
"It seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do although I had never done it for anyone else." He looked like he was getting on to something. "I did notice the first time he did it for you because it was unusual. The two of you always had your hands stuffed into your pockets when you were around each other. There was no chance of any physical contact, almost as if you were doing it deliberately. I always wondered what that was about."
"James, Robbie and I had a special friendship. Privately there were times when I held him when he cried about Val, and there were times that he held me when I cried about…you. We would hug or hold hands in private. We didn't want people to make something unseemly out of our relationship so we purposely kept our distance in public."
"And keeping your hands in your pockets was to remind you."
"Yes, it made it easier. There were times when the natural thing to do was to reach out for each other. We always waited until we could find time alone."
"Innocent said once that she wanted to go into both of your wardrobes and sew all of your pockets shut." They both laughed at that. "So what else did I do that was different?"
"There was the day you come into the mortuary to tell me to work things out with Robbie after I went out with Franco. Sergeant Hathaway would never have said that to Dr. Hobson."
"Yes, I'm sorry for acting like a surly teenager. I felt like a son who was embarrassed that his mother was cheating on his father." I have no intention of calling the pair of you mum and dad.
They both registered the fact the he described himself as her son.
"I wasn't actually cheating on Robbie. We didn't have that kind of relationship then, although I did feel guilty about it. And then Robbie and I had a long talk."
"About him getting jealous?"
"Yes, that and redefining the boundaries of our friendship."
"I'm happy the two of you are more than just friends now. You are more than just friends, aren't you? That reference to his snoring wasn't just a red herring?"
She giggled softly. "No, I suppose that was my way of letting you know what was going on."
"What, that the two of you finally spent the night together like adults?"
"Not finally." She hadn't meant to let that slip out.
James pounced on that remark. "You mean the two of you have been carrying on behind my back for years?" His face turned red.
"No, not years, just one weekend."
"When? After your opera weekend was cancelled I wasn't aware you went away together."
"We didn't go away. We were at my house." She stopped and took out her phone and called Robbie getting his agreement that it was okay to share this with James. "I invited him over to my house for dinner one Friday night. We both knew why. It was something we had talked about over the years, first as a joke, then more seriously after I went out with Franco."
"Why didn't anyone know about it?"
"We publicly acted as if the dinner never happened. One weekend about two years ago you were going to be away at a music festival and Lyn was going with Tim to visit his parents. Neither one of us told anyone about our plans so no one could ask us about it later."
"The kids were away so you could finally act like grown-ups."
"Something like that."
"I find this hard to believe."
"Yes. I know it sounds incredible. We had allowed ourselves a holiday from our grief and guilt, an escape from our lives. Think of the knight on the chess board leaving the area with rules and order and temporarily occupying a new space." They both imagined the moments when the knight has a brief respite from the game. "We are human after all, and in our own way have loved each other for a long time."
"And no one knew?"
"No. This was just between us, and now you. Robbie never even told Lyn although he thinks she figured it out. She is the daughter of a good detective after all."
"Lyn is a better detective than me apparently. I still need a week or two to work this all out."
"We stayed in our alternate universe for the whole weekend. We both knew it would end on Sunday evening and as if on cue, Lyn called to talk to her Dad about missing her mother."
James wanted to look smug but couldn't manage it.
"A few years ago I would have enjoyed hearing all that so I could tease my boss, now with our change in circumstances it falls under the category of too much information."
"Sorry about that. After all the years of secrecy I decided on a policy of total honesty with you."
"I appreciate honesty when I ask you a direct question. On other matters you might want to picture me as 12 years old when you decide to volunteer information."
"Okay, message received and understood." Picturing you at 12 years old is painful.
"And just like that you went back to being friends?"
"Yes, as agreed, although it paved the way for our future relationship. We could see some light at the end of our dark tunnels. Then Robbie retreated back into the past for awhile and I made plans with other people to give us some space."
James was relieved she did not elaborate about her plans with other people.
"He was guilty about your holiday and that's what caused him to regress?"
"No, actually it was more grief that Val would never get to meet her grandchild. He needed time to process that."
"And then you finally got together, while I was in Prishtina."
"Yes, as they say in pantomime, timing is everything."
James had to let all that sink in. They finished their lunches and exited the restaurant. This time as they started walking down the sidewalk and James stuffed his hands in his pockets, Laura took his arm. He flinched at first then relaxed as they made their way towards the river. James wanted a cigarette but wouldn't take his arm back from her. You win this round Doctor.
They found a bench and sat. Laura stared into the river while James smoked. He told Laura he had a confession to make.
"That day at your house when we were hiding out from the press during the Miranda Thornton case, I have to admit to a bit of snooping, checking out what was in your refrigerator and on your bookshelves."
Laura smiled at him. "I know you did. You took the upside down book and put it right."
James stared at her deciding whether or not to be mad about her little test. She must have left the book like that on purpose. He chose to ignore it. "Lewis wasn't at all curious. I figured he had been there before. I just didn't know he'd been upstairs."
"Yes, he knew his way around. I hope someday you'll feel comfortable coming over when I'm there. You can even snoop around all you want, at least downstairs." They both allowed themselves a laugh.
They sat quietly again as James had another cigarette. Then he turned to her with a serious look on his face.
"Laura, I need your advice."