A Date on Cloud Nine (16 page)

Two—and this really hurt—for anyone to inherit
Lilly’s wealth, she’d have to die. She almost had. That undoubtedly weighed on her mind and was the impetus for making these changes so quickly.

Say she made him beneficiary of her trust—she had no obligation to, but just suppose, because now that the topic had come up, it was dragging his thoughts in this very morbid direction. So say it took her death for him to dig out of debt. Then forget it. Not even accidentally. No one’s value to another person should boil down to money.

Although a lot of organizations probably would disagree with him, especially recently. Lilly had given away millions of dollars, and not just for people, but animals, too. On Mooch’s behalf, she’d given a hefty sum to the no-kill animal shelter, because even though he hadn’t gone through the shelter and been rehabbed, he’d been homeless. In spite of his prickliness, he was okay to have around. He certainly deserved a chance at life. It’d be nice, though, if he quit leaving dead mice parts on the floor of the taxi. Jake was having a helluva time making sure they were out of there every morning before Lilly got in.

His day was filled with exactly what he’d been afraid of—wondering what Lilly had on under that dress and what color it was. Sheer torture. Whatever it was was probably red; Lilly loved red. Was her bra as sexy as the rest of her lingerie? Would he be able to see her nipples through it?

“Hey, watch the curb,” she warned.

It was stupid, really. He hadn’t been so obsessed with what a woman wore since high school. He hadn’t hit a curb in just about as long. Thank goodness it was five o’clock and they were nearly done.

“Here’s the last one on the list for today,” he said, paralleling the curb with care. “Sorry we missed Shaw’s Garden.” He’d planned on photographing the rare yellow camellia for her, but they’d run late and didn’t even have time to drop off the watch.

“
Damn
,” she said, groaning.

He leaned forward and peered through Lilly’s window. “Yeah, awfully dark, isn’t it?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“What? You never want to quit.”

Mooch moaned long and low—anywhere else and it’d be a strong case that someone was trying to murder him. He climbed onto Lilly’s lap, shoved his way under the circle of her arms, and lay with his belly flat on her chest.

Lucky damn cat.

With the top of Mooch’s head nestled beneath Lilly’s chin, he commenced nuzzling her. And purring? He sounded like an outboard motor. Commingled with the moaning, a very stressed outboard motor.

“Jake.”

Lilly’s whisper was thready and flat, and just thinking that something could be wrong with her scared the daylight out of him.

“Your cat’s demented.”

“Huh. I’ve never seen him do that, not even for ice cream. So, you want me to check the door and see if anyone’s still here?”

“
Ow
.”

“Mooch!”

“It’s not the cat. Don’t yell at him.”

What else—“Your arm?”

“Yes,” she said through gritted teeth. “Start driving.”

Her face was pinched with pain, so even though Jake’s gut contracted, even though he’d gladly take her place if he could, he didn’t question her, just floored the gas and aimed the taxi for the nearest hospital.

Don’t worry, Brady, I’m keeping an eye on her for you
.

“I
knew
we should’ve had it checked out sooner. Damn, I should’ve made you go see a doctor.”

“It’s not your fault.” A quarter mile away, like night and day, Lilly sighed in relief and said, “You can slow down now.”

In fact, she looked pretty content to have Mooch making up to her, darned near purring along with him when he rubbed his head under her chin.

“Mm, I didn’t know cats were so soft.”

If Mooch weren’t a cat, he’d be in big trouble. A quarter mile farther, he wiggled free and curled up next to Lilly’s hip. No moaning. No purring.

“What was that all about?”

“Got me. It’s as if he knew I was hurting. Maybe it was a bad charity or something, because I wasn’t even
thinking
anything against the rules.”

“You shouldn’t still be having pains in your arm after two weeks.”

“It’s okay, it’s gone.”

“Yeah,
now
.”

She glanced around, noting their route. “So help me, if you pull into a hospital, I’m pulling out my pepper spray.”

He braked to the speed limit and turned for home, but he wasn’t ready to give in completely. “You should see a doctor.”

“No.”

“Then at least fill me in so if I have to call 9-1-1 for
you someday, I won’t have to stand there and answer their questions like a jackass: How often does she have these pains?
I don’t know
. How severe are they?
I don’t know
. On a scale of one to ten—”

“All right, already.” She covered a smile with her hand, unsuccessfully, and looked anywhere but at him.

“Come on,” he coaxed.

“You’re not going to like the explanation.”

“How do you know until you tell me?”

“I know you.”

He scoffed at that ridiculous assumption. “Just because we spend hours together every day doesn’t mean you know me.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Sure. If you’re right, you can have the next pan of Chocolate Orgasms all to yourself.”

She gave that some thought, but not much. “Not good enough.”

“Okay then, what do you want?”

“I want—and keep in mind I’m only doing this for your child—”

“I don’t have a child.”

“You will someday.” It was her turn to study him. “And on his behalf, if I win, I want you to open your mind and read a book, cover to cover.”

“That’s it? Read a book?”

“Get real. It has to be on one of those subjects you consider shit. You know, tarot, channeling, numerology, astrology, one of those.” When he didn’t answer, she grinned impishly, her eyes dancing. “See? Know you pretty well, don’t I? Still wanna bet?”

He sat back at a red light, crossed his arms over his chest and thought,
Why the hell not?
It wasn’t as if he could lose.

“Fine. When
I
win, you’ll get that arm x-rayed.”

He enjoyed watching her think, her scarlet-colored lips looking very kissable as her mouth tugged this way and that, keeping time with thoughts ping-ponging back and forth inside her head.

“If you win, and”—she laughed—“believe me,
that’s
not gonna happen, I’ll let a doctor check me out using any test that doesn’t require removal of this bracelet.”

She pointed at it so there’d be no misunderstanding, but the most significant thing Jake noticed was that she never said
my
bracelet. It was always
this
or
the
bracelet, or
it
, devoid of any possessiveness on her part. Whenever a charm disappeared, she didn’t say she lost a charm, she said,
another one fell off
. So far she was missing two. She claimed that was because she’d given two million dollars away, but he wasn’t buying that.

“Deal.”

He stuck out his hand, and they shook on it, and it was a very good thing they hadn’t been touching when they’d made the deal or who knows what he would’ve agreed to? Probably something really stupid, like reading a whole set of metaphysical encyclopedias. One book would be bad enough—
if
he had to read one, which he knew he wouldn’t.

He moved forward with the bumper-to-bumper traffic as the light changed. “So. Give.”

“You were right at the salon. It has to do with giving away money.”

“Nuh-uh, you’ve been giving away millions, I don’t buy that.”

After a deep sigh, she chose her words with care. “Remember me telling you about John and Elizabeth?”

He groaned. “Not angels again.”

“Well, I’m not sure if they’re angels, exactly. But anyway, they gave me this bracelet, and when I even
think
of giving money to anyone who doesn’t need it—from a charity standpoint, mind you—it zaps me.”

He stared at her until someone honked, then he eased forward again. “You’re telling me that you think it’s coming from the bracelet?” And she was still wearing it? “Maybe it’s not angels, you ever think of that? Maybe it’s something totally explainable like, say, a
static charge
.”

“Mm, I wish.”

“Then all you have to do is take it off.”

She tried to hide another jolt, but he could tell from the tiny squeak that escaped her lips that she’d just gotten another shock.

“There, see, no mention of money, and you got zapped again, didn’t you? I rest my case.”

“Elizabeth warned me not to take it off.”

“Right. I can see I’m going to have to test it to prove my point.”

She snickered.

“What? Afraid to let me put a meter on it and prove there’s no current in that thing?”

“Not if, when I
think
about giving money away and your meter registers a charge, you admit I’m right.”

“We’ll do it as soon as we get home.”

They were about five minutes away. This was too easy; he should’ve asked for her to see a doctor
and
the next pan of fudge to himself.

“What’s with the streetlights?” she asked on the final block, a dead-end street.

“The neighbors don’t like them on all night, so they just come on when a car drives by.”

She twisted around and looked out the back. “They turn off right away?”

“As long as it’s one of us. If it’s a stranger’s car, they stay on about ten minutes.”

“You have
every
neighbor’s car programmed?”

“It’s just a little—Hey, who drives a Jaguar?”

Lilly grimaced as Jake pulled into his driveway. “Oh my gosh, I forgot. I told Andrew he could pick me up at five. Guess he’s been here longer than ten minutes, huh?”

If he nodded at all, it was tersely, because after Friday night, Jake wasn’t feeling too tolerant about Andrew’s intentions. No way that guy thought of himself as Lilly’s brother-in-law. A bottle of champagne to celebrate an intrafamily sale? Get real.

“Donna’s attorney drew up a contract on the house. I’m supposed to go over there and sign off.”

“I would’ve driven you.”

“Be glad for the break. Have some wine, some dinner, wind down. I’ll be back later. You want me to pick up a movie?”

“No need, I can get any movie anyone’s broadcasting.” Then when they were both standing in the cold, he caught her attention across the roof of the taxi. “You sure you want to go with him? I mean, you were pretty mad this morning.”

“I know.” She fairly danced with glee. “He’s going to be so pissed off next time he talks to my broker.”

“So should you be going with him?”

“Relax, he’s my brother-in-law, not some psychopath. Look,” she said with obvious reluctance. “I have to go now. Donna’s expecting me.”

The streetlight stayed on as Andrew pulled the low-slung, dark Jag into the drive to pick her up. Inside, Lilly held her hand up in a resigned wave, then she was gone.

Jake had been coming home alone to this house for months. It had never felt so lonely as it did now without Lilly.

“Lilly dear, it’s so good to see you.”

Donna was only slightly taller than Lilly, but seemed more so due to the unnaturally erect way she carried herself. Lucky for her, she looked good in black, because that’s all she’d worn since shortly after Brady’s death.

She hugged Lilly on the wide threshold of the Marquette mansion, then ushered her into the broad, marble-floored foyer. Two years ago, Lilly had raided her own atrium and given Donna and Frank the huge potted palms that now graced the entry and stretched up to the second floor.

“Sorry we’re late,” Andrew said.

“I never count on anyone being on time during rush hour.” Donna was always gracious. “Here, I’ll take your coats. Oh, Lilly dear, are you losing weight? You’re so thin. Now I’m not criticizing, dear, I’m just concerned, you know that, don’t you? You really should move in here with Frank and me. We’d love to have you, and Antoine
always complains that his talents are wasted cooking for just the two of us.”

Her chef prepared meals to die for. In spite of that, Donna maintained a lovely figure, highlighted tonight in a silk pantsuit and pearls. This was a woman who spared no expense in keeping herself up. When she’d thought she detected the beginnings of a dowager’s hump—Lilly rolled her eyes just remembering the crisis—she quickly hired a personal trainer who came in three times a week. Now she wasn’t only ramrod straight, she was strong, too.

“Why, he’d have the weight back on you in no time.”

“That’s sweet of you,” Lilly demurred, “especially since I’ve gained five pounds recently.” Between the fudge and brownies and fast food, she was lucky it was only five.

She liked Donna, she really did. She’d visit more often if her mother-in-law would quit her constant harping about how it “wasn’t safe for an attractive, single woman to spend every night alone in that big old house.”

Get over it.

“Well, you’d never guess you put on so much as an ounce, would you, Andrew?”

“Lilly looks just fine to me, Mother. Wonderful, in fact.”

“Yes, she does. Maybe red has a slimming effect on some people. Come in by the fire, you two, and warm up. I have drinks waiting.”

Donna passed their coats to the maid, then led the way to the study, where she handed Lilly a glass of white wine and had one herself. Andrew poured his usual Scotch, neat.

Lilly relaxed in the chair closest to the hearth and wondered why she hadn’t been spoiling herself with fires lately. Since she’d met John and Elizabeth, chocolate tasted richer, wine was like nectar, Jake’s touch promised all the passion she could ever hope for, and all together, that made her wonder how much better a darkened room with a crackling fire could be than before. Would it somehow seem warmer, more romantic? Ooh, yeah, she had to get Jake in front of a fire some night.

Donna perched on the chair across from her, while Andrew seemed comfortable on his feet.

“So Lilly, dear, tell me what you’ve been doing to keep yourself busy lately. I’ve had so many calls about your philanthropic activity. Lord knows, Brady had a kind heart, but he never would have done what you’re doing. Whatever made you decide to start taking all these charities under your wing?”