Best Laid Plans (18 page)

A perfect child who had no smiles left to give. Jake checked his watch and was amazed to see thirty minutes had passed. He was sweating in the warm studio and felt like he’d just hiked up a mountain.

“You two are real troopers. I’ve seen professional models who wore out faster than this. Let’s wrap up for the day.”

Violet swung around on the padded platform so her back was to him before exchanging the baby for her robe. Although he’d seen her from this angle through the camera, he was seeing her now through the eyes of a man, not a photographer. When she lifted her hair from her neck to cool it, the entire elegant length of her sinuous back was exposed. He imagined placing his tongue at the base of her neck and licking his way down until he reached the tantalizing cleft between those cheeks.

“You’re a lucky man, Mr. Macintyre.” He forced himself to turn his head and smile at the assistant who had interrupted his reverie. “Your wife is a lovely woman, and such a nice person, too. She brought pastries for the crew this morning.”

His
wife
? When he returned his gaze to Violet, she was tying the sash on her robe. Like Daisy, she seemed to have run out of smiles. She’d gotten home from work after midnight, and was up with Daisy at seven, so he marveled at the energy she’d put into the shoot.

In fact, she was a marvel. When he’d believed she’d used him to get pregnant, or even that she’d just decided he didn’t need to know his DNA was being passed on, he’d wanted to wring her delicate neck. But he’d had time to think about what it must have been like for her to discover she was pregnant.

He knew by now that Violet was a woman who slept with her day-planner by her bed, and never left the house without a list of errands. He’d seen her add something she’d already done to her to-do list just so she could check it off. She even worked in a business where everything was carefully timed and scripted, and he had no doubt she’d had a timetable for life’s major events, like marriage and motherhood. But she’d gone ahead and had the unscheduled baby, even though she knew few people in her new city. Even though the baby’s father was on the other side of the world and totally inaccessible even if, by some chance, he’d wanted to be a father.

If she’d tracked him down a year ago, would he have come running back to the States at the news of his impending fatherhood? He recalled the adventures he’d had — which ones would he have been willing to miss so he could carry gifts home from a baby shower? No, Violet had been right to handle things the way she did. He was smitten with Daisy now, and he’d try not to let her down. He might have become a father by accident, but Jake Macintyre wasn’t husband material. That was one accident he could prevent.

When he raised his eyes from the equipment he was packing up, Maeve was standing in front of him. “Your wife and daughter are waiting to say goodbye.”

“Miss Gallagher is not my wife.”

The woman appeared startled, then focused her eyes on something — or someone — over his shoulder. He followed her gaze, and saw Violet standing in the doorway with Daisy. She turned and went out the door without a word.

• • •

An hour later, Jake was pulling camping gear out of Jamie’s guestroom closet when he heard his brother’s footsteps in the hall. He swore to himself, and considered jumping into the closet and pulling everything in after him. He’d been hoping to make a fast and clean getaway.

“Time to get out of Dodge?”

Too late. “I’m going to camp in the mountains for the weekend. I just need some fresh air and a break from the city.” He didn’t bother telling Jamie he wasn’t trying to escape from anything; his brother knew him too well.

“Excellent idea. A little fishing, some canned beans heated over the campfire. Hand me my backpack, and I’ll be ready in twenty minutes.”

Jake didn’t bother to stifle his groan.

Jamie put his hands on his hips. “Hey, you store your gear at my place, this is the price you pay. Besides, we haven’t camped together in years. Would it be so awful?”

He had to admit if he couldn’t be alone, his brother was the only person he’d want sharing his tent. Although his sleeping bag was another matter altogether, and he imagined slipping into his down cocoon with Violet. Then he reminded himself he’d be too tired to do anything but sleep after completing the fifty-item checklist she’d insist upon for their safety.

“You can come. Just don’t talk too much.”

An hour later they were on the highway heading toward the Berkshires. With his brother along, there was too much gear to fit into his rental car, so Jamie was piloting his luxury SUV while Jake pondered where his plan to get away and rough it had gone wrong.

He flipped open his cell phone and called Violet. As he’d hoped, it went to voice mail. She was probably screening and didn’t want to talk to him. He left a brief message telling her where he was going.

“I won’t have my phone on during the day, but I’ll check for messages before I turn in for the night.” He flipped it shut and tucked it into his knapsack on the seat behind him.

“You didn’t even tell her you were going?”

Jake didn’t like what the question implied. “I didn’t have to. We’re not married.”

His brother laughed so hard he didn’t hear the instructions coming from the GPS system. “And not likely to be!”

“Look who’s talking.” He’d been cooped up with his brother for only twenty minutes, and already Jake felt like he was eleven years old again. “You were supposed to turn left back there.”

It wasn’t until they were bedded down for the night, inches apart in the tent, that Jake brought up the subject again. “Have you ever thought about it? Why neither of us seems able to settle down with one woman?”

He heard his brother inhale deeply before he spoke. “I settle down with one woman all the time.”

“Maybe I need to define ‘settle down’ for you, bro.”

Jamie laughed softly. “I know, I know. My therapist — yes, I’ve had therapy, don’t make fun of me or I’ll pound you — says I never had a happy marriage model to learn from. My memories of Mom and Dad together are hazy, at best, and my memories of Mom’s second marriage are all too clear. I’d say I’m following the model set by Uncle Matt.”

“Uncle Matt says he’s going to marry Carrie. Do you think he’s serious?” Jake struggled to get comfortable on the hard ground and wished he hadn’t turned down his brother’s offer of an air mattress. A couple months of memory foam mattresses, and he was spoiled.

“I think he’s just intrigued because she won’t sleep with him. Matt acquired confirmed bachelor status years ago.”

His brother seemed so sure of everything. He remembered how Jamie had laughed earlier at the idea of Jake ever getting married. Was he already as set in his ways as his uncle?

“So your therapist thinks we’ll never settle down just because we can’t remember our parents having a happy marriage?”

There was such a long silence his brother might have fallen asleep.

“Even if you could get past that, you couldn’t stay in one place long enough for it to happen. You were so young you don’t even remember, but after Dad died you wandered off so often, Mom had to start tying you up.”

It was true he didn’t remember, but every time Jake heard the story his heart raced. He had a terrible fear of small spaces and being confined, but one fear surpassed it by far.

“When she got sick …” his brother’s voice tapered off without finishing the thought.

Jake’s conscience prickled. “I wasn’t around much and left you with that burden, Jamie. You know I’m sorry, don’t you?”

Again there was a heavy silence, and Jake was glad they were having this conversation in the dark.

“I never blamed you for that, you were just a kid. But in a way, I feel sorry for you. I spent a lot of time with Mom, reading to her from those travel books she loved about all the places she wanted to see, and I really got to know her. You missed out on something special.”

Jake remembered listening outside his mother’s bedroom door to Jamie promising he’d take her someday to all the exotic places she wanted to see, a promise all three of them knew was a lie. They’d made lists Jake would find in the kitchen in the morning. The Great Wall. The Pyramids. The Eiffel Tower. Jake had been to all of them.

“She was a wonderful woman.” His brother’s voice was fading out. “I haven’t found another one who could compare to her.”

Jake thought maybe he had.

• • •

Although he’d set it to vibrate, Jamie never turned his phone off the whole weekend, which caused Jake a lot of confusion. He’d think his brother was talking to him, when he was actually talking to a client. When he checked his messages again before starting up the SUV on Sunday, it reminded Jake he should check back in with civilization as well.

The only message he had was from Grace Cornelius, telling him she had a family emergency and wouldn’t be able to watch Daisy on Monday, and should she give Violet a call too?

He hit redial and told Grace he’d let Violet know, even as he searched his mind for a solution. He’d asked Grace to sit so he could go to the television studio and be interviewed by Violet for her show. It was important to her, and he hated to cancel at the last minute.

“Who can I get to watch Daisy tomorrow?” he said out loud to himself.

“Don’t look at me, I’d rather fight a black bear for my picnic basket.” His brother smiled as they bumped their way out of the State Park.

“Carrie’s trustworthy now, don’t you think? Violet doesn’t have to know.”

“If she finds out,
you’d
be better off fighting with the black bear.”

“True enough.” But he dialed his Uncle Matt’s number anyway.

• • •

Violet hadn’t done an in-depth interview since leaving Wickham, and she was nervous. It didn’t help that she was interviewing Jake. But he’d made it clear at the photo session on Friday that what they had was a professional relationship; now she’d be the one in charge, doing her job. And it was her job to get Jake to reveal something about himself, whether she was personally interested in his revelation or not.

She scanned her list of prepared questions, and starred the ones she considered most important. During the interview she might follow an intriguing tangent, but having the list would give her a base to return to. Her brother could tease her about her lack of spontaneity, but a large portion of what she did was unscripted. Once she had established a rapport with her subject, the skill came naturally.

But would it happen with Jake?

He’d seemed nervous when he arrived at the studio, and distracted, even evasive, when she asked him how Daisy’s day was going. Maybe she’d make a quick call to Grace, just to ease her mind.

She was reaching for the phone when someone knocked on her dressing room door. “They’re ready to do your make-up, Miss Gallagher.”

“Coming.” She rose quickly to her feet. It was rude to keep people waiting, and she was certain Daisy was just fine.

• • •

“This time I get to turn the cameras on you.” Violet and Jake sat facing each other in director’s chairs on one of the studio sets. “At least when you work with me, you get to wear clothes.”

In his well-worn jeans, scuffed boots, white T-shirt and khaki jacket, he could be the leading man in an adventure movie, the hero who would bring back the treasure — and the girl. All that was missing was a pith helmet, but it would be a shame to cover up his curly golden hair.

He grinned. “Good, because my skin isn’t as smooth as yours.”

Violet’s shoulders tensed; she didn’t want to begin on a personal note. Best to just keep moving instead of saying anything.

“I’ll introduce you and talk about your work, and then we’ll just chat. I might ask you something that turns out not to be relevant, and take it out later. If you’re ready, we’ll start the cameras.”

He swallowed hard, which told her he was nervous. “You’re the boss.”

She nodded to the cameraman, then turned back to Jake. After a short intro and welcome, she began with the first question on the list.

“Jake, you’ve had a long career for such a young man. Can you tell me how you got started in photography? Did you have a formal education, or are you self-taught?”

“Some of both.” He shifted in the tall chair, but his eyes never left her face. “My father died when I was six, and his last gift to me was the Kodak Instamatic camera I’d asked Santa Claus to bring me for Christmas. Of course I was much too young for it, so my mother put it away until I was a few years older. I’d never get anything else from him, so I wanted to make it last a lifetime, so to speak. I snapped pictures everywhere I went, and got a paper route so I’d have money for film. Later, when I went to college, I majored in journalism but took a few photography courses.”

His father died when he was only six? Although her smile didn’t waver, Violet prickled with embarrassment over all the whining she’d done about her father’s neglect. At least he’d been alive.

“How did your father die?” This was one of those tangents; she didn’t expect to use the answer in the finished interview.

A cloud passed over his eyes and his smile vanished. “An industrial accident.”

She sensed she would get nothing more from him on that subject, and shifted gears.

“You said you studied journalism. Were you a writer before you were a photographer?”

The smile came back. “Yes, but not for long. I was an intern for a camping magazine when I got caught borrowing their darkroom to develop my pictures. Luckily for me, my boss liked my work enough to give me an assignment. He actually called it ‘my work,’ which was a defining moment for me. Then he sent me to the Acadia National Park in Maine to do a story on solo wilderness camping. You can’t go solo and bring a photographer, so I did it all.”

“Do you remember the amount of your first check?”

“Five hundred dollars. It was the first time I’d ever been paid to do what I loved best, and I resolved right then it wouldn’t be the last.”

Violet, preoccupied with scanning her question list, almost missed the ambiguity in his answer. “You said you were paid to do what you loved best. Did you mean taking pictures, or camping in the wilderness?”