His Girl Friday (12 page)

"I'l get him," she said, rushing back out to the car. "Norman?" Eugene asked with a frown. "Don't ask," Cabe told him. Danet a was back in seconds with Norman in his cozy carrying case in one hand. "Here he is."

Eugene peered through the wire door and his eyebrows arched. "That's an iguana, al right."

Danet a grinned. "His name is Norman and he's three years old."

Eugene stuck his hands into his pockets with a sigh. "Wel , he'l feel right at home. Nicky's got everything except an iguana—"

"Is she here? Did she bring it?" an excited voice demanded, and a young boy came out onto the porch. He was the image of Cabe, already tal for his age, dark-haired and blue eyed. He grinned up at Danet a. "You must be Dan. I'm Nicky. Is that your iguana? Can I see him?" She burst out laughing. His excitement was contagious. "Yes, I'm Dan," she said, not even minding being cal ed that for once. "And this is Norman." He bent, looking through the cage. His head raised briefly as he looked up at Cabe. "Hi," he said with a shy, hopeful smile, but Cabe turned his at ention to his father and ignored him. The light seemed to go out of the boy as he looked back at Norman.

An elegant woman of forty wearing designer jeans and a pink knit top came out onto the porch, smiling at the commotion. She had blond hair done up in a French twist, and her complexion was as fair as Eugene's was dark. Her eyes were dark and soft as they rested on the boy.

"He likes things with warts and long tails," she explained to Danet a in a soft, sweet tone. "I'm Cynthia, and you must be Danet a. I'm glad to meet you at last. I've heard a lot about you."

"Was any of it repeatable?" Danet a asked the older woman with a smile.

"You'd be surprised," Cynthia said wickedly. "Hel o, Cabe. It's good to see you."

Cabe nodded. He was looking at Nicky with hard eyes. Cynthia noticed and shooed everyone inside the house.

"I'l bring coffee and cake," she said. "Have you two eaten?"

"No," Cabe said.

"How about some sandwiches? Mrs. Fitchens had to go away for the weekend so we haven't eaten, either. I can slice some ham. ."

"May I help?" Danet a offered. "Since I'm adding to the food problem, I can at least help solve it." Cynthia took her arm and drew her along to the kitchen. "Yes, you may. Nicky, don't open the iguana's cage yet," she cal ed back. "Wait until you and Danet a can take him out to the garage."

"Okay, Mom." The boy was sprawled on the floor, talking to Norman through the wire door.

"He doesn't bite," Danet a as ured Cynthia.

"Oh, I'm used to lizards," Cynthia said easily. "I find them fascinating. Now tel me about your job. I do mis mine—I used to work for Eugene, you see." She sighed as she put out the ham and began to carve it. "Now I spend my life doing al sorts of volunteer work and taking on social projects and being here for Nicky. I don't need to work anymore, but having money can be rather confining sometimes. Some people have a hard time get ing past the checkbook to the person, if you see what I mean," she added with a grin. Danet a liked her already. She perched on a stool, putting mayonnaise and let uce on bread for Cynthia. "I like working for Cabe," she replied. "Wel , not al the time. He has a terrible temper.. "

"Yes, I know," Cynthia mused. "He and his father don't get along very wel ." Her lovely face stil ed. "He resents me, you see. I can't even blame him. Gene and I did rush it a bit, but I was so much in love, for the first time in my life. We got married and I was pregnant, and Cabe seemed to close the door on al of us."

"Tragic for al of you," Danet a said, her voice quietly sympathetic.

Cynthia turned. "Yes, it was. Cabe needs so badly to be a part of us, part of our family. Nicky worships him, but Cabe has no time for his half brother. Nicky is his biggest sore spot."

"Nicky looks just like him," Danet a sighed. "Or he wil , in a few years."

"He favors Gene, just as Cabe does," Cynthia said with a wistful smile. "I thought the resemblance might do the trick, but it never has. In some ways, it's made it worse."

"Maybe it wil change someday.'

"I've hoped that it would for eight years," Cynthia replied. "I've given up. I'm glad you came with Cabe. This is the first time he's ever brought anyone with him."

"It was kind of him," she said gently. "I was real y afraid to stay at my apartment, and motels aren't much more secure. I stil don't know what they were after."

"Don't worry about it. Al that clandestine stuff Gene's into makes me nervous, too." She pas ed a plat er of sliced ham to Danet a and watched her put it on the bread. "Do I give you separate bedrooms?"

It was a simple question, but it got a very complex reaction. Danet a went scarlet and the look she gave Cynthia made the older woman burst out laughing.

"Oh, my," she mused. "Poor Cabe. I take back the question and the implication. I'm delighted to know there are women like you left in the world. Of course, we're very much in the Bible Belt here, so maybe our at itudes are different from that of other places."

Danet a smiled shyly. "I do have company. Two girls I know in other departments at work are from Georgia and New Jersey, respectively, and they're just as old-fashioned as I am. It isn't al a question of geography, I gues ," Danet a returned. She shifted restles ly on the stool and finished arranging the plat er of sandwiches. "I'm sorry I look so disreputable. I had to take my dres to the motel last night, and it looks as if I slept in it."

"If you'd like to change, we can eat later."

"No, that's perfectly al right," Danet a as ured her. "I'm starved," she confes ed. "I didn't have lunch!"

"Oh, you poor thing! I'l cal the men and we'l sit right down," Cynthia said, and minutes later, they were eating. It was a pleasant meal, except that Cabe ignored Cynthia and Nicky and talked almost exclusively to Eugene. Danet a talked about clothes to Cynthia and herpetology to Nicky, and they got along fine.

After they were through, Danet a went up to the pret y white-and-blue room Cynthia had given her and changed into jeans and a yel ow knit sweater so that she and Nicky could take Norman out to the garage.

It was a big place, with a huge den off the main garage and a bedroom upstairs.

"This is where Dad's houseman used to live," Nicky explained to Danet a after they'd left the others behind and were on their way through the misty rain.'But he quit and so there's nobody right now. That's why I get to use it for my pets. Here they are."

He pointed to a whole shelf of aquariums that had been converted into habitats for various amphibians and reptiles. There was a huge, enclosed wire cage, complete with fresh water and a food dish.

"That's for Norman," Nicky told her. "Dad built it for Mr. Bunny, but Mr. Bunny died last summer. I thought it would make a nice place for an iguana to spend the night."

"And so it would." Danet a smiled. "Here, let's put him in."

"Could I hold him?" Nicky asked hopefully.

"Sure." She said it with reservation because Norman wasn't used to males. But when she took him out and put him gently in Nicky's hands, so that his bel y was supported, he half closed his eyes and stared up at the boy with no sign of irritation or fear.

"Wow!" Nicky chuckled. "Wow, isn't he neat?"

"I think so," Danet a told him. "I've had him for three years. He eats quiche and pizza and al sorts of things iguanas aren't supposed to like, and sometimes he'l come when I whistle."

"He's an iguanid," Nicky said authoritatively. "So are anoles, you know. I have six, two males and four females, but I have to cage the males separately because they fight."

"I like anoles. Yes, I know they're clas ified in the clas of reptilia and order squamata—-which doesn't include crocodiles, beak-heads and turtles—but in the suborder sauria, which excludes snakes. Genus," she added, grinning at Nicky, "is iguana. So the common green iguana—" she pointed at Norman "—is iguana iguana iguana."

"Very good!" Nicky returned. "You forgot chordata."

She clapped her hand over her mouth. "Sorry."

"Chor. .what?" Cabe asked with a frown as he and Eugene and Cynthia joined them.

"Chordata," Nicky told him. "The kingdom is ani-malia, the phylum is chordata—having backbones. We're clas ifying Norman."

"Do tel ?" Cabe murmured, keeping his distance from the reptile in Nicky's arms. "He seems to like you."

"Yes, doesn't he?" Nicky sighed. "I wish I could have one."

"Why can't you?" Eugene asked.

"Pet shops don't keep them. They say the babies don't live without a lot of care."

"Have Mr. Harris special order you one. I'l foot the bil for the air delivery," Eugene said.

"You mean it?" Nicky gasped. "Wow, thanks, Dad! Dan, can you teach me how to take care of him?"

"You bet," she said, smiling at him.

"Want to hold him, Cabe?" Nicky asked.

Cabe backed up another step without being obvious. "Not real y, thanks. He's already done his smoking dragon imitation for me once today," he added with a faint smile.

"He thought you were an intruder," Danet a told him. "I'l bet he did that when the burglar came into the apartment, if he was on the floor. He might have bit en him if he'd come too close," she added thoughtfully, "or at least lashed him with his tail."

"I thought you swore he didn't bite," Cabe reminded her.

"Wel , not normal y," she qualified. "Any animal wil bite if it's threatened."

"That's right," Nicky agreed. "My lit le anoles wil bite if they're squeezed, and they're the sweetest lit le guys." Danet a put Norman in the big cage, promising him supper, and then looked at Nicky's collection of anoles and frogs. The anoles looked like miniature crocodiles, and they changed color—living up to their nickname of "new world chameleons." They looked a lot like Norman had as a baby, but they were barely six inches long and full grown. The frogs were fascinating. He had a White's frog from Australia—a beautiful blue-green frog with huge eyes and suction-pad toes. He had a red-and-black poison arrow frog, Chinese painted frogs, fire-bel ied toads and a huge bufo marinus, the biggest frog in the world. The bufo was highly toxic, like the poison arrow frog.

"That's quite a collection, Nicky," she mused.

"It took a long time to build," he said importantly. "I take care of them al by myself."

"And very wel ," she replied. "Don't you think so, Cabe?" she added with a pleading glance at the tal man beside her. He sighed at the look in her eyes and averted his glance to an expectant Nicky. He smiled warmly for the first time. "Yes. I think you do very wel , Nicky," he replied. The change in the boy was miraculous. He seemed to glow. "Thanks, Cabe," he mumbled with faint embarras ment and began to rat le off the genealogy of the White's frog. Danet a's eyes were on Cabe. He was watching Nicky, but now the hostility wasn't quite as noticeable. There was hope, she thought, that one day he could accept the boy. She'd do her part to help. Nicky needed Cabe. And whether or not he realized it, Cabe needed Nicky.

She slid her hand into Cabe's unobtrusively, feeling him stiffen and glance down quickly, frowning.

The reaction she got unnerved her, and she tried to draw her hand away. But his fingers tightened and he searched her eyes. Then he smiled, and al her doubts fel away. She moved a step closer and had to drag her at ention back to Nicky, who was explaining the proper way to handle the toxic frogs and toads without risking exposure to the dangerous neurotoxins that they emit ed. Cabe smiled at her, and she felt as if she'd swal owed warm wine. Seven

Danet a learned more about Cabe in that one afternoon and evening than she'd found out in two years. She saw his diploma from high school and his bachelor's degree from Yale in busines . She saw his trophies in riding competition and his shirt with the shirttail cut out that marked the day he flew solo in his airplane—and she hadn't even know that he could fly, because he didn't these days.

From Eugene she learned of Cabe's interest in Western history and his contributions to a scholarship in the arts for two students a year at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. And while he might not be a reptile man, he had a keen interest in quarter horses and was an expert rider. Nicky told her that, with quiet pride in the half brother he saw so rarely.

While she was finding out things about Cabe from his family, he was on the phone trying to sort out an emergency at the company. The part had been flown out to the oil rig in the Gulf, but it had been the wrong part. The warehouse had mixed up the numbers and heads were rolling right and left. Cabe had to order two employees back to work to straighten things out, and the part was sent and instal ed without another hitch.

"I hate the equipment busines ," Cabe muttered as he rejoined the rest of them in the living room much later. He was in his socks, his jacket and tie off, his shirt half unbuttoned and rumpled. He looked.. incredibly masculine, Danet a thought. He was a hairy man, but not offensively so, and that curling thatch on his chest made her fingers itch. She could hardly take her eyes off him.

He noticed her rapt stare with a faintly arrogant smile. He liked that shy appraisal. He sat down beside her on the sofa and slid a posses ive arm over the back so that it rested almost touching her shoulder. Eugene and Cynthia exchanged amused glances.

"If you real y hate the equipment busines , come back and work for me," Eugene murmured dryly.

"No deal. I like what I do too much." Cabe glanced down at Danet a, his eyes soft and quiet. "Besides, you'd have me out of town al the time. I'm get ing to the age where I'd like to stay in one place."

"We could work something out."

Cabe dragged his eyes away from the warmth in Danet-ta's and looked at his father. "No."

Eugene shrugged. "Okay. No harm in trying. Anybody want to watch that new science-fiction movie I bought?" He held it up and Danet a grinned from ear to ear.

"Like science-fiction, do you?" Cabe asked as Eugene put it on, and his arm drew her close.

"A lot," she whispered, bright with the joy she was feeling. It was incredible to be sit ing here, with Cabe's arm around her, on the receiving end of that soft, smoldering look that had once frightened her.