Dream Trilogy (77 page)
Authors: Nora Roberts
Pleased for him, she said, “Oh, that’s wonderful, Michael. Congratulations.”
He plucked a creamy white hibiscus from the bush beside the lounge and handed it to her. “I came by to thank you.”
Absurdly touched, violently nervous, she stared at the blossom. “I didn’t do anything but mention your name, but you’re welcome. Judy knows a lot of the horse set. I’m sure she’ll pass your name along.”
“I’m counting on it. I’d like to take you to dinner.”
She shifted away a full inch. “What?”
“I’m flush,” he said, patting his pocket. “And I owe you.”
“No, you don’t. It was just—”
“I’d like to take you to dinner, Laura. I’d like to take you, period, but I think we’ll have to do this along more conventional lines. You’ve been avoiding me.”
“No, I haven’t. Really.” Or hardly at all. “I’ve been busy.”
He imagined her social calendar was full enough. Committees, ladies’ luncheons, the jobs she’d taken to fill her time. “I wouldn’t imagine a Templeton would scare off so easy.”
It was exactly the right switch to pull. “It isn’t a matter of scaring off. I have a great deal to do.”
“Then take another rain check. You let me know when you can squeeze me in.”
When he started to rise, she touched his hand. “I don’t mean to sound ungracious.”
“You?” He smiled thinly. “Never.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to . . .”
“Move on you?” he suggested. “Last time I checked, I still had blood in my veins. If you’re not interested, just say so. I can probably take a no.”
“I don’t know what I am, but it’s not disinterested.” She resisted, barely, tracing the hibiscus along her cheek. “And I don’t think I’m prepared to deal with that gleam you just got in your eye. In fact, I know I’m not. I’m going to change the subject.”
She drew a deep breath, willing to accept the embarrassment of having him grin at her. “Kayla told me you’ve been teaching her to ride.”
“Is there a problem with that? I guess I should have asked you.”
“No.” She dragged her hand through her hair again. “No, there’s no problem. I’m very grateful that you’d take the time and trouble. I don’t want her pestering you, Michael.”
“She doesn’t pester me. In fact, I’m thinking about giving it ten or fifteen years and asking her to marry me.”
Her smile came fast and warm. “She’s so easy to fall for. She’s so open and loving. She’s full of you. Mr. Fury this, and Mr. Fury that. She’s certain you’re going to turn Bongo into some sort of dog genius.”
“I’ll have to work on that.”
“That’s what I wanted to discuss with you. I’d like to compensate you for your time, with Kayla. I—”
“Stop.” He said it quietly, the steel of temper a sharp edge beneath. “I’m not a servant.”
“I didn’t mean that.” Horrified that she’d insulted him, she rose again. “I only meant that if you’re going to be taking so much of your time to—”
“It’s my time, and I’ll use it as I please. I don’t want your damn money. I’m not for hire as a friend for your kids or as a temporary father substitute or whatever the hell you have in mind.”
Now she went pale, very pale. “Of course not. I’m sorry.”
“Christ, don’t give me that wounded look. You make me feel as though I kicked a puppy.” Frustrated, he jammed his hands in his pockets. Compensate him, for Christ’s sake. The way you compensate a waiter for good service. He should have expected it. “Just leave it alone.”
He spun away to stare out at the swirling fog. Keeping her face blank, Ann stepped inside with the coffee tray. Not by a flicker of the eye did she reveal she’d heard a great deal of that last exchange.
“Your coffee, Miss Laura. The girls are on their way down.” If they hadn’t been, Ann might have smothered conscience and eavesdropped a bit longer.
“Oh, thank you, Annie.” She put a smile on her face, kept it there as her children came in. “I believe Kayla has something for you, Michael.”
Kayla held the picture behind her back as she approached. “If you like it, you can hang it on your wall.”
“Well, let’s see.” He took the heavy drawing paper from her, stared. “Damn.”
Kayla’s face dropped comically. Automatically, Laura put a hand on her shoulder to comfort.
“You don’t like it.” Kayla’s head drooped. “I shouldn’t have drawn it so fast, but I wanted to do it while I remembered everything.”
“No, it’s great.” When he looked up from the drawing, his smile was huge. “I was surprised, just like you said I’d be. It looks just like the lady, Kayla. Just exactly like her.”
“Really?” With her tongue caught between her teeth, Kayla peeked over to critique her own work. “Usually I draw things I see in books, or that are right there. But I thought if you had to sell her, you could have a picture so you’d always remember her.”
“It’s beautiful.” And nothing like the childish drawing he’d expected. She’d captured the mare’s springy gait in the movement, the proud head. He supposed a trained eye could find room for improvement, things like perspective and range that he knew nothing of. All he knew was that he was impressed, and touched. “It’s my first original Templeton.”
If anyone noticed he hadn’t used her legal name, there was no comment. Kayla merely preened and slipped a hand into his. “I’ll draw you more if you want.”
“I’d like that a lot.” He scooted her onto his knee and looked at Allison. The older girl stared down at her feet, obviously miserable. “You finish cleaning your room, Blondie?”
Her head came up, and so did her color. She eyed her sister, and her sister’s big mouth with disdain. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. I figured once you were off the bread-and-water routine, you might want to catch up with Kayla here on the riding lessons.”
Her mouth fell open before she remembered her manners. “I’d like to learn to ride.” Though it cost her, she turned to her mother. “May I?”
“I think that would be a wonderful idea. I may have to brush up myself before the two of you get ahead of me.” She laid a hand on Ali’s shoulder. The stiffness faded reluctantly, but it faded. “Thank you, Michael. We’ll see what we can do to meld our schedules.”
“Mine’s flexible.” After a quick bounce, he set Kayla on her feet and rose. “But right now I’ve got to get back.”
“Your coffee,” Laura began.
“I’ll take a rain check.” His smile spread slowly. “You know about redeeming rain checks, don’t you, Laura?”
“Yes.” How did a mother handle sexual flutters with her two daughters looking on? Laura didn’t have a clue. “Thank you for coming by.”
“My pleasure.”
“I’ll see you out,” Ali said with great dignity.
To his credit, Michael nodded gravely. “Thank you.”
“I’ll go, too. Mr. Fury, do you think you can teach Bongo to shake? Uncle Byron’s dogs can shake.”
Alone, Laura sat again as her daughter’s bright voice echoed away. Experimentally, she pressed a hand to her stomach. Yes, it was churning. And to her heart. Yes, it was pounding.
How did a woman with absolutely no point of reference go about redeeming a rain check for an affair?
She had absolutely no clue about that, either.
Chapter Eight
The sun tore away the clouds and fog and the chill of coastal winter. While reports of a Midwest ice storm hit the news, Monterey enjoyed soft blue skies and a breeze that held teasing hints of spring.
On the cliffs, the wind was rougher, whipped in from the sea and tasting, as Laura always thought, of adventure and romance.
The winter grass rustled, and the waves roared, fuming water like froth from a bottle of champagne. Once a young girl had died there, through her own will. An old man had grieved there, through his own memories. And somewhere, gold hidden for more than a century waited to be found.
Laura enjoyed the company and the leisure as much as the search. Nearly every Sunday, she and her friends and her daughters came here with the shadow of Templeton House behind them to look for Seraphina’s dowry.
“We could buy a horse when we find it, couldn’t we?” Kayla looked up from her enthusiastic scraping with a garden spade. “From Mr. Fury. I know how to take care of a horse now. He showed us. You have to feed them and water them, and brush them and clean out their feet—”
“Hooves,” Ali put in, feeling superior. “You pick out their hooves. And you have to exercise them, too. And muck out their stalls.”
“Have you been mucking out, Ali?”
Ali shrugged her shoulders, hoping the new earrings in her pierced ears showed off to their best advantage. “Mr. Fury says it’s part of the job. You don’t just get on and ride, you have to take care of them.”
“Yes, you do.” The father-daughter supper was behind them, and Ali had survived it. Laura touched Ali’s hair. “When I was a girl and we had horses, I mucked out my share of stalls. I never minded.”
“Couldn’t we have some?” She’d tried not to ask. Ali wasn’t quite willing to forgive her mother for letting her father go away and marry some other woman. “Mr. Fury’s going to build his own stables and house. When he goes away, he’ll take the horses.”
“We’ll talk about it.”
“You say that when you mean no.” Ali rose from her crouch.
“I say that,” Laura returned, praying for patience, “when I mean we’ll talk about it. Right now Mr. Fury’s renting the stables and there isn’t really time for another horse.”
“He’d sell us one of his if you wanted. If you really wanted.” Ali turned her back and went over to where Margo and Kate ran the metal detector.
“She’s still mad because he’s getting married soon,” Kayla said.
“Hmm?”
“You know, Mama. He’s marrying Mrs. Litchfield.”
“I’ll talk to her again.” Though she could think of nothing left to say on the matter. “Are you mad, baby?”
“No, I don’t care if he marries her. I don’t know why he wants to when she has that mean smile. And when she laughs it hurts my ears.”
With an effort, Laura muffled a laugh of her own. Leave it to Kayla, she thought, to sum up Candy in such accurate terms. “People get married because they love each other.” Or so she’d once believed, Laura mused as she looked out to sea. So she’d once dreamed.
“Are you going to be in love with someone and get married?”
“I don’t know.” Dreams change, Laura reminded herself. “You can’t plan these things.”
“I heard Mrs. Williamson tell Annie that Mrs. Litchfield planned to catch Dad in her trap, and how he deserved it.”
“Ah.” She cleared her throat. “She just meant that they were going to be happy together.”
“I guess.” Kayla thought no such thing but was wise enough to let it pass. “I’m going to get some lemonade from the thermos. Do you want some?”
“That would be nice.” Laura rose as well and wandered over to her friends.
“I’m not skimming, damn it.” Blowing hair out of her face, Margo continued to run the detector. “I’m doing it the way I always do.”
“Half-assed.” Kate rolled her eyes as Ali giggled. “Sorry.”
“She’s been hanging around the gym too much,” Margo told Ali. “Picking up bad language along with locker room sweat.”
“You’ve got too much jewelry on,” Kate complained. “You’re going to send the thing into convulsions.”
“Bitch and moan.” Margo winced herself. “Sorry, Ali. Here, why don’t you wear my bracelet a while?”
“Can I?” Thrilled, Ali watched her glamorous aunt transfer the heavy gold links, then held up her arm, watching the sun bounce off them. “It’s so beautiful. It glitters.”
“What’s the point in wearing it if it doesn’t glitter?” She winked and flicked a finger at Ali’s earlobe. “Those are pretty.”
“Mama got them for me. I got an A on my science report.” She glanced toward her mother, and her smile bloomed hesitantly. “She said I worked hard and deserved a reward.”
“You did—and you did,” Laura confirmed. “Would you mind helping Kayla get lemonade? I think we’re all dry.”
“All right.” She took a step, stopped. “Would you like a sandwich?”
It was an apology, Laura realized, and though she wasn’t hungry, she smiled. “That would be terrific. Why don’t you and Kayla spread out the blanket and we’ll take a break for lunch?” Laura murmured as her daughter picked her way around rocks, “She’s trying. It’s hard for her to accept.”
“If I had the prospect of Candy Cane as my stepmother, I’d find it more than hard,” Kate muttered.
Margo merely lifted one elegant shoulder. “Candy’s too much in love with Candy to give them the time of day. And the girls are smart enough not to give her any more than that back.”
“I suppose it would be easier if they liked her—a little.” Then Laura sighed and gave in. “And it’s probably selfish of me to be glad they don’t. But I’m glad they don’t.”
“Anyone want to take bets on how long the Peter and Candy show runs? My take is—” A little dizzy, Kate sat down abruptly on a rock. “There it goes again.”
“Are you all right?” Kate had a history of ulcers, and now Laura leapt to her side. “Is it a flare-up?”
“No.” Kate took easy breaths, waiting for the world to settle. Yes, there was the sky, nicely blue and back in its proper place. “You know what? I think I’m pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” With a thud, Margo set the detector aside and crouched in front of Kate. “How late are you? Have you taken a test?”
“Late enough.” Kate closed her eyes, tried to analyze what she was feeling. “I bought one of those instant things at the drugstore. I haven’t used it because I’m afraid it’ll say I’m not.”
“You’re using it first thing tomorrow,” Margo ordered, and she cupped Kate’s face in her hand to take a long look. “Morning sickness?”
“Not really. A little queasy when I first get up, but it passes.” She shifted her eyes. “The two of you stop looking at me with those smug, knowing grins.”
“Not a chance.” Laura sat beside her. “What does Byron say?”
“I haven’t mentioned it. In case I’m wrong. I don’t want to be wrong,” she said shakily. “I know we’ve only been married a few months and we have all the time in the world, but I don’t want to be wrong.”
Other books
The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
The Gatecrasher by Sophie Kinsella
Come Back To Me by Barrett, Julia
Wait Until Dark (The Night Stalkers) by Buchman, M. L.
Indulgence in Death by J. D. Robb
Aníbal by Gisbert Haefs
Aurora's Promise by Eve Jameson
Faggots by Larry Kramer, Reynolds Price
Play Hard (The Devil's Share Book 5) by Maxa,L.P.
