Chapter Twelve
Lois unfastened the multiple locks on her door and shoved it open, thrust her key ring into her purse, and kept a lookout for intruders, all while balancing a bag of groceries in one hand and gripping the day’s incoming mail in her mouth. Lucy looked up from the couch and said, “Hey, Sis. You need any help with that?”
Lois kicked the door shut and grabbed the grocery bag with both hands. “Oh, all I can get,” she muttered around the envelopes between her teeth.
Her sister laughed and jumped up to take the bag. “Kitchen, right?”
Biting back the sarcasm on the edge of her tongue, Lois nodded. “Got some nice microwave dinners, some milk and cereal, and a box of cake mix.”
Lucy stopped in mid-step and nearly fell. “Cake mix? You bought cake mix?”
Lois took the mail from her mouth and dropped it on the coffee table. “Sure. Why not?”
The bag thudded down on the kitchen counter. “Because you don’t cook, that’s why!”
“Hey! There are eggs in there! If they’re broken you’re going out for replacements!”
“Forget the eggs! Who are you and what have you done with the real Lois Lane?”
Lois stared at Lucy for a long moment, then burst out in peals of laughter. “It’s not funny!” Lucy insisted. “This isn’t normal for you! Why did you buy cake mix?”
Still smiling, Lois replied, “I’m going to make a cake.”
“Really? What for? Whose birthday is it?”
She brushed past Lucy and began putting away the groceries. “I’m sure it’s somebody’s birthday somewhere.”
“Grrr!”
“Sorry! I’m going to make it for a co-worker. He’s pretty far from home and I think he’s a little homesick.”
“Uh-huh,” Lucy purred. “So, does this co-worker have a name?”
Lois marveled that her sister could go from angry vixen to sexy gossip in a single breath. Maybe that was her super-power. “He does. His name is Clark.”
“I see. And is Clark handsome?”
“Yes.”
“And is Clark – single?”
Lois opened the egg carton and found no damage. “Yes.”
Lucy’s hand rested on Lois’ shoulder. “You’re going to make me pull all the important information out of you one piece at a time, aren’t you?”
Lois turned and gave her sister a deadpan stare. “Yes.”
“Ohh! You are a hateful old hag, Lois Lane!”
Lois hid her smile inside the refrigerator. “That’s what all my overly inquisitive little sisters tell me.”
“Not funny. You need to find a new gag writer.”
There was no response. “Come on, Lois! Tell me all about this guy! He’s hot, isn’t he?”
The refrigerator door swooshed shut and Lois folded the empty grocery bag for disposal. “Being hot isn’t the only good thing a guy can be, Lucy. Clark is smart and talented and good-looking and he’s a really nice guy.”
“Really? Well, then, when do I meet him?”
Lois’ glare drilled through her sister’s eyes and directly into her brain. “You don’t. You stay away from him, understand? No attacking while the prey isn’t looking.”
“I don’t work like that!”
“Really? What about Drew Thomas during my senior year of high school? He dropped by to take me out to dinner and while I was getting ready you started making out with him in the living room! And you were just a sophomore!”
“You should thank me!”
“Thank you? For stealing a potential boyfriend?”
“For letting you know he wasn’t there because of your sparkling personality!”
They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment, then Lois chuckled. “Yeah, he did turn out to be kind of a rat, didn’t he?”
“Kind of, yeah. He dumped me two days later for some senior at another school.”
“Really? I’m sorry, Punky, I never knew that. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Lucy padded back to the couch. “I didn’t think it would do either of us any good. Besides, I wasn’t any more serious about him than he was about me.”
Lois followed and sat beside her sister. “Still, it must have been a little painful.”
“Nah.” But under her older sister’s devastatingly sympathetic gaze, Lucy offered, “Well, maybe a little bit. After all, I took him away from you.”
Instead of laughing, Lois put her hand over Lucy’s and gave it a squeeze. “I know,” she said. “I felt the same way when Linda King took Paul away from me in college. And it didn’t really help that much when I found out that Linda was sleeping with him mainly to get her stories published.”
“I guess not. You never needed to pull stunts like that.”
“I never did it, anyway.”
Lucy grinned. “And now you’re baking a cake for Clark! That’s his name, right?” Lois nodded. “What kind? Are you making the icing from scratch or did you buy some in a can?”
Lois took her hand back and pulled off her shoes. “Canned. I figured making the cake part would be adventurous enough.”
“Chocolate?”
“Is there any other kind?”
Lucy clapped her hands together and chortled with glee. “When are you going to present him with your gift of cake?”
“I’ve got three days to get it right. Perry gave all three of us some comp time for all we went through on the space station story. Jimmy’s going to Atlantic City for an extended weekend getaway, and Clark said he planned to fly back to Kansas to help his mother pack her pieces.”
“Wh – what? He’s packing her what?”
“Oh. Sorry, I forgot you didn’t know. Clark’s mother is Martha Kent, the artist. Her professional name is Martha K. She’s going to have a solo show here in Metropolis soon.”
Lucy’s mouth dropped open. “His mother – Martha Kent – his mother is Martha K?” The girl leaped to her feet. “Oh, Sis, you’ve just got to get me a ticket to her show! She does such great work with iron and aluminum! You’ve never seen welded art like that before! Nobody has! She’s so original and inventive!”
“Okay, Punky, I’ll see what I can do.”
Lucy grabbed her sister’s hands and pulled her upright. “No! You have to get me in to see her! I have to meet her! Her work has had such an impact on my life!”
“Whoa! Lucy, I don’t know if I can – “
“But I have to tell her about New Beginnings! Don’t you understand?”
Lois shook her head slowly. “No, I don’t. Why – “
“Oh, please please please!”
Lois fixed her sister with a stern glare and spoke with a bad mock Cuban accent. “Lucy, you got some esplainin’ to do!”
“That wasn’t funny when I was five and it isn’t funny now!” Lois merely held the glare until her sister sighed in surrender. “Okay, I’ll try.” Lucy took a deep breath and started pacing around the coffee table. “It was one of the first pieces she presented after her husband died. She called it ‘New Beginnings’ because it represented a new beginning for her, but when I saw it in San Francisco I was just floored! It’s a linear piece that shows that a person can recover from a heavy blow and still succeed, still progress upward. When I saw it, I could almost hear it speaking to me!”
“When did you see it?”
“About six months ago. That’s also when I started following her work closely.”
“Aha! That’s when you left California and broke up with what’s-his-name, right?”
Lucy drew herself up and frowned. “Yes. I realized that following Jeff and his band all over the West Coast was a dead-end journey. It struck me that I needed to do something positive with my life, to accomplish something that I’d only dreamed of in idle moments. If someone her age could keep going after such a tragedy, then I could, too, especially since I was younger and hadn’t suffered anything close to what she had. That’s why I’m here now, to finish my MBA and make my life count for something other than putting notches my bedpost.”
“And you’re going to do that by partying all night?”
“I assume you’re referring to the morning I came home last week and found you on the kitchen floor in your lacy panties. I wasn’t out clubbing, I was finishing up a project for one of my classes. And before you ask, there are two guys in our six-person study group and neither one of them made a move on me.”
“Oh.” Lois felt chagrined. “I’m sorry, Lucy, I didn’t know.”
“You do now.”
“Yes, I do. And I’m glad you were working on something positive. I’m also glad that I was wrong about what I assumed you were doing.”
“Good. Now that we have that settled, I really want to meet Martha K. It’s really important to me, Lois, so please, please, please do your best to get me in to see her!”
Lois nodded. “I will. I’ll tell Clark that his mother’s work has made an extreme impression on you and that you want to share it with the artist personally. I think he’ll help.”
Lucy lifted an eyebrow. “Make sure you talk to him about it before he tastes your cake.”
They shared a laugh. “Okay!” said Lois. “Hey, how about you help me? That way if it turns out bad, I can blame you.”
Lucy hugged her and bounced on her toes twice. “Are you kidding? He’d like that cake so much that I’d probably take him away from you! It’d be Drew Thomas all over again!”
As her sister bounded away to her bedroom, Lois tried to recover from the shock of Lucy’s mock threat. But why was she shocked? Why would her statement have any impact on Lois at all? Clark was just a co-worker – okay, he was Lois’ partner. And Lucy couldn’t have any impact on that relationship. Clark just wasn’t that important to Lois on a personal basis. And as far as Lois knew, she wasn’t that important to Clark either, at least not on a personal level. As far as a personal relationship between Clark and Lois went, there was no ‘there’ there.
So how could Lucy take someone away from Lois when he wasn’t hers to begin with? As a threat or a warning, it couldn’t have much force. Surely she was just kidding around again.
Unless – there was something Lucy saw that Lois couldn’t.
Or just didn’t want to see.
Or maybe she just didn’t recognize it yet. Maybe there wasn’t anything between them so far, but could there be something in the future? Was there a day yet undreamed where Lois Lane and Clark Kent became more than just friends, more than just partners on the reporting beat?
Maybe the cake Lois planned to make for Clark meant that she felt free to experience something stronger between them, something more permanent, something deeper and more binding than sharing a byline. Sometimes a cake was just a cake, but maybe this one meant more than Lois had originally thought it did.
Only time would tell.
Her thoughts turned to the new player on the scene. Superman was a hero, but that was only because the man under the suit – Clark Kent – was already a good person. If Clark had been selfish or bitter or a bully, Superman would have been those things also, but to a much greater degree. Lois shuddered as she imagined a super-powered bully apprehending criminals – or, worse, organizing them for his own benefit.
It was frightening. It was almost as frightening as imagining Lex Luthor with super-powers. She was thankful that those abilities had come to Clark instead of someone with a lower ethical standard. On top of that, he was a darn nice guy, even if he did occasionally lean over her shoulder and edit her copy.
Clark’s a pretty good guy, she told herself. I could have ended up with a worse partner.
He’d make a great husband for some lucky woman someday.
*****
“That’s the last piece, Mom. All crated up and ready for transport.”
Mom patted me on the arm. “Thank you, Clark. You saved me a good bit of money. The shipping company wanted an extra six hundred dollars to pack those pieces.”
“You’ll still have to pay for workers at the delivery site.”
She grinned. “Nope. That’s the gallery’s expense, not mine. They get to pay to pack them up again at the end of the show, too. All I have to pay for now is the rental for the tractor-trailer rig and the forklift to load it, and since Rachel promised to drive to Metropolis with me I don’t have to hire a second driver.”
I stopped. “Rachel’s back in town? I thought she was in Nebraska.”
“Oh, her office is there, but she’s taking a couple of weeks off. She and Kevin are taking a trip to the East Coast to see if they want to relocate. Her reputation as an investigator has gone through the roof with the insurance company, and the company wants them to move East and take on more responsibility. Rachel mentioned something about her becoming an investigations trainer for the company, and Kevin may be moving up to regional manager.”
I nodded. “That’s great for them.” I looked back at the crates littering the floor of the barn. “Do you think she’d be willing to talk to me?”
Mom put her hand on my arm. “Honey, you’re not thinking of starting up with her again, are you? She’s happily married now.”
“I know that, and no, I wasn’t thinking of starting anything. More like finishing something.”
“Finishing what?”
I knew I was being dramatic, but I let out a long sigh. “We didn’t part on the best of terms, and I want her to know that I don’t hold it against her for breaking our engagement. I don’t know that it was the best thing to do, but I think I understand why she did it, and I feel like I need to talk to her about it.” I took a look at Mom’s face and added, “Just the one time. I know she’s happy now, and the last thing I want to do is interfere with that.”
“Oh.” She looked thoughtful for a minute, then relaxed and nodded to me. “You know, that actually sounds like a good idea. And it fits in with some of the things she’s said to me lately. I think she’d be willing to talk to you. And to listen to you, too.” She stepped back and took a long look at me. “I think you’ve already been talking to someone. Maybe you’ve even been listening to that someone.”
I shrugged. “Could be.”
She smiled. “I think you’ve even been paying a lot of attention to that someone.”
“Well – “
“I think you’ve been paying attention to a girl,” she teased.
“Mom!”
She laughed. I still loved hearing her laugh. “It’s okay, Honey. I really do listen to you, and the way you’ve described this Lois Lane makes me think I’d like to meet her.”
I couldn’t stay mad at my mother. She had only my best interests at heart. “I think that can be arranged. Maybe the three of us could have dinner together one night during the show’s run.”
“I’d like that, but I wouldn’t want to get in the way. You know how third wheels are.”
“We’re not dating, Mom. We’re just partners in the reporting business.”
“Uh-huh. Is that all you are?”
I hesitated, and I know she noticed that I didn’t really answer her question. “Well, Lois has a sister who’s a college student. Maybe she’d like to come along, too.”
“Three women with one man? I don’t think you could handle it.”
I frowned. “If I can lift the colonists’ shuttle to the space station, I think I can stand up to three women for a couple of hours.”
She patted my arm patronizingly. “Different kind of strength, Clark. I’m not sure you’re ready for that.”
Right. Like I’m scared of three women, even if two of them were my mother and Lois Lane.
Wait. Maybe – maybe not. Maybe I wasn’t that strong after all.
I shifted gears. “Well, my boss asked me about your show last week. He said he wanted me to come with him and explain some of your pieces to him. Maybe he’d like to have dinner with us.”
“Without his wife? That wouldn’t be proper.”
I could hear my voice soften. “He’s a widower, Mom. Four years.”
“Oh.” She nodded, almost to herself. Then she brightened. “You wouldn’t be playing matchmaker with me, would you?”
“What!” The very thought of setting up a date for my mother – with my boss! – completely scandalized me. “You’ve got to be kidding! There’s no way I’d pull a stunt like that! I’d be out of work and out of the house so fast even I wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace!”
She laughed softly. “I’m sorry, but sometimes you’re just such an easy target. It’s okay with me if you and I have dinner with your boss and your co-worker.” She paused and cocked her head to one side. “Actually, it sounds like it would be fun. You’ve changed quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. You’re more relaxed and confident, and I’d like to meet some of the people who’ve obviously had such a positive influence on you.”
I smiled. “You think I’m more relaxed and confident?”
“Clark, you never would have worn that red-and-blue outfit in public three months ago! Yes, you’ve changed. I think it’s for the better, and I have to believe that the people you’ve met recently are at least partly responsible for it.”
That’s the moment I decided that I’d do whatever I needed to do to keep my mother away from Cat Grant. Perry, sure, I’d like for him to meet her, but not Cat. Not yet. There was no telling what the Planet’s resident gossip and sex kitten might say or do.
But as I thought about it, I found that I really wanted Mom to meet Lois. Somehow I was certain that the two of them would get along famously. Which meant, of course, that I’d probably end up having to spend even more time with Lois.
And that was starting to feel like a very good thing.
It wouldn’t be long before I’d have to figure out how to tell Lois about my “other job,” the one where I flew her around and pretended not to know anything about how a newspaper operated. A month before, having an award-winning reporter know my secret would have terrified me. But I realized that I was actually looking forward to telling her about myself and all the “interesting” things I could do.
I was looking forward to her knowing, but I wasn’t really looking forward to actually telling her. That would be an awkward conversation. I only hoped she wouldn’t be too mad at me for not coming clean at the beginning. But I was confident that I could handle a little anger.
Besides, Lois would understand. She was terrific. I doubt I could have gotten a better partner.
She’d be a great wife for some lucky man someday.
