Moonlight and Roses (2 page)

Caroline was wearing a sky blue strapless dress Linda made for her and her grandmother's pearls when she walked into the Vanderbilt Room at The Waldorf Astoria hotel. Mother and daughter looked stunning and the room with its green marble wainscoting, pilasters capped with gold leaf cornices and silver nickel railings wa
s equally posh and understated.

"I'll find our table, see if there are any interesting men here," Linda whispered, moving off quickly.

After a few minutes, Linda located their table and sat down. She watched her daughter from across the room and recalled when Caroline had been born.

****

When Linda became pregnant, the stress in their lives doubled instantly.
She
worried how they would live if she couldn’t work. Alex was thrilled. Fatherhood came easily to him. The prospect of having his own child as a playmate lifted his heart. He took jobs working in stores, two jobs a day, to put aside enough money for Linda to take a few months off.

When Sunny was born, Linda insisted on giving her the beautiful, dignified name, Caroline, but Alex slipped “Sunshine” in as her middle name on the birth certificate. He called her “Sunny” insisting she brought sunlight into his life. The first few months were heaven as Linda, Alex and Caroline cocooned together, going for walks, playing, laughing and loving.
Long-missed p
assion returned to Alex and Linda when they weren’t up at night with the baby.

When Linda went back to work, she created a schedule where she would work at night while Alex minded the baby, and he would work during the day. There was never enough time for painting and making love. Still, they managed to make ends meet and stay together. As Caroline grew, Alex found steady work as a word processor for a law firm. The work paid well, even though he hated it. When Caroline turned four, Linda discovered a cabin in a summer community in the Catskills called The Birches. It was cheap, so she and Alex bought it. Mother and child went there for the summer while Alex stayed behind to work and paint in the city, but he joined them on weekends.

****

Caroline wandered toward the bar clasping her arms behind her back, then crossing them over her chest, then flipping her tiny handbag fro
m hand to hand as she walked.

"Vodka and tonic, please," she ordered from the cute bartender, giving him a big smile.

He placed the drink in front of her with an appreciative look at her dress. She blushed as she turned away
.
Though she
and didn’t
see
several men giving her the once-over
, she could feel their stares. Caroline wondered if her dress was hiked up in the back and reached around to give the hem a tug
. Silence hung heavy in the air as she stood near the bar, shifting her weight from foot to foot, trying to get comfortable standing by herself drinking and wondering when thi
s dreadful event would be over.

"Who invented these awful gatherings?"
s
aid a male voice on her left.

She turned to see an average-looking man in a finely-tailored tuxedo standing next to her. In one elegant hand, he held a whiskey on the rocks. He smiled as he moved his gaze up and down her body. Caroline crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive move.

"I'm Miles Wentworth," he said, offering her his hand.

She shook his long-fingered hand and introduced herself. "Caroline Davis," she said, remembering to make eye contact.

"You add much to this dreary event, Caroline."

"This room is beautiful and the tables with all the colorful flowers and al..."

"They have nothing on you," he said, leering at her.

She smiled at him and scanned the room for an escape. Linda was making her way slowly toward Caroline, smiling her outright approval that her daughter had made a connection. Caroline directed her gaze at her mother with a "help me" look in her eyes, but Linda simply smiled, shook her head slightly and moved away.

"Thank you…kind of you," she replied.

"Nothing kind about it. You are definitely the most beautiful woman in the room."

Caroline blushed again and made another attempt at conversation. "What do you do for a living?"

"I cash trust fund checks. Does wealth make you want to sleep with me?" he answered with a suggestive laugh
.

"Actually, no. I think I'd prefer the bartender," said Caroline, moving away from Miles and scanning the crowd for her mother. She didn’t care if
she was rude
;
she wanted to get away from him so she returned to her seat next to her mother.

Linda looked around her table, disappointed to see no single men there. It was mostly older couples and a single young woman seated next to Caroline.
Although she
hadn’t
expect
ed
her daughter to be seated next to a wealthy prince, she was still disappointed it didn’t happen. Determined to get her three hundred dollars worth, Linda scanned the room, looking for attractiv
e men to point out to Caroline.

“Long-time supporters of the Boys and Girls Clubs?” An older woman asked Linda.

“We’re new to this one,” Linda said, smiling.

We’re new to them all!

Caroline looked away to keep from laughing, and noticed a nice looking man staring at her from an adjacent table.
She smiled at him and he returned her smile.

“I hate these things. My parents drag me here because their friends come…and they’re hoping I’ll meet someone,” the girl next to her confided.

“This is my first one, but I know what you mean. My name is Caroline.”

“Anne. If I looked like you, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Where would you be?”

“In bed with some hunk.” Anne laughed as she spoke.

Caroline raised her eyebrows and dug into her salad to avoid responding.

“Where did you get such a stunning dress? It’s amazing how the blue matches your eyes so perfectly,” Anne said.

“My mother made it.”

“She did a great job. My mother wouldn’t be caught dead at a sewing machine. She’s a day trader.”

Caroline nodded and kept eating, hoping the sooner she finished the quicker they could go home. The lights dimmed as the main course arrived and a speaker stepped up to the podium.

“Now they’re going to tell you what they did with your money and why they need you to cough up more,” Anne whispered.

After the speech and dessert, Caroline prepared to make a quiet departure when the band started their rendition of
“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.”
It was a favor
ite song of hers
so
she
sang along
softly
, knowing the lyrics by heart.

The man at the next table stood and sauntered in Caroline’s direction.
“
Would you care to dance?” he asked, captivating her with his smile.

She stood up,
smiling warmly at him and placed her
hand in his.

“This song is a favorite of mine. I’d love to dance,” she replied.

“Mine, too,” he said.

She
sized him up
as he led her away from the table. He looked pretty normal, about five foot ten, with brown hair and warm brown eyes. She wondered how he’d gotten the small, rather intriguing scar on his forehead. He pulled her a little too close , and moved her effortlessly around the dance floor. His shoulders were broad, his hands warm and dry and he smelled faintly of expensive aftershave. She relaxed
, swaying with him to the beat of the music.

“I’m Case Evers,” he said.

“Caroline Davis,” she replied.

“New here?”

She nodded
,
wondering why an attractive man like him was alone

“I thought so. I’d have remembered you.” He laughed, tight
ening his arm around her waist.

She rested her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes.
The strength of his body,
the familiarity of the music and the soft lights created romantic sensations in her. Surrounded by expensive dresses and tuxedoes and steeped in a luxurious atmosphere Caroline wa
s
lifted above the mundane and into the fantasy world of
the rich if only for one night.

The music stopped. Scattered applause sounded as the band started up again, this time playing “Unchained Melody.” Case drew Caroline into his arms a
gain and swept her up and away.

“I don’t intend to let you go,” he whispe
red. “You’re mine for tonight.”

“Don’t I have some say in this?”

“If I let you go, there are ten guys waiting to swoop down. I may not be brilliant but I’m not stupid,” he said with a chuckle
, still holding her loosely against him even though the music had stopped for a moment
.

His flirty but low-key manner attracted her to him. He wasn’t rushing her into bed so she felt safer with him than any other man she’d met there.
Her gaze connected with her mother’s as Case twirled her around the dance floor. Linda gave Caroline a smile and a slight nod of approval. The band switched to a Latin beat with “Sway”. Case pulled her close again putting his hand on her hip to guide her to the marimba beat.

“Those expensive dancing lessons finally pay off,” he said with a
short
laugh.

They moved together, hip to hip as Caroline followed his lead. The heat from his chest seeped into hers and her body began to react to the sexy dance
, she felt heat in her chest moving down her body Her fingertips on his shoulders began to tingle.

After the music stopped, Cas
e led Caroline over to the bar.

“What are you drinking?”
h
e asked.

“Campagne, if they have it,” she replied.

With drinks in hand he guided her to a window, far away from the other men in the room. He stood with his body between her and the crowd, effectively shielding her, while she leaned back against the wall.

“Tell me about yourself, beautiful Caroline,” he said.

“Not much to tell. I’m an artist.”

“An artist? Fabulous! Do you paint? Draw? Do charcoal?”

“All of the above.” She sipped her drink, watching him over the rim of the glass. “What about you?”

“I’m a lawyer…not with a big firm or anything. I have one partner and we do mostly non-profit work, like for the Metropolitan Ballet.”

Caroline smiled at him.

True to his word, Case danced every dance with Caroline. He told corny jokes that made her laugh and made sly comments about some of those attending the dinner, whi
ch she found amusing and witty.

Dancing dangerously close to him during the song, “Fascination”, Caroline lost track of time. When they broke and looked for a bar
to get a drink
, Caroline
glanced around
for her mother, but Linda was gone. She’d apparently left Caroline alone with this charming stranger.

“My mother took off.” Annoyed, Caroline allowed an edge to creep into her voice.

“Good. Then I can take you home,” he said, his eyes glistening at the prospect of getting her alone in the moonlight, even if only for a few minutes.

“You’re not an axe murderer, are you?”

“Not in this life,” he answered
with a chuckle.

Case kept his hand on her elbow as Caroline picked up her purse and they walked out together. “Do you live far?” he asked.

“About twenty-five blocks up and then across.”

“Are you up to walking?”

She stared up at the full moon in the clear night sky. “It’s a
beautiful night, so why not?”

Case took her hand and they strolled up Madison Avenue together, stopping to look in the windows of the chic stores carrying outrageously expensive clot
hing.

“This is the cheapest way to window shop, when the stores are closed,” he observed, peering into a window filled with
the chicest designer’s smallest sizes of fall jackets and pencil-thin skirts with astronomical price tags
.

After ten blocks, Case pulled Caroline closer, resting his arm around her shoulders. She slipped her arm around his waist and looked up.

“Are you a werewolf? The moon is full,” she joked.

“Perhaps only the wolf part, to use an old fashioned term.” He pulled her into the darkness of a shop doorway and planted a tender kiss on her lips
, keeping his hands on her waist
.

Surprised, Caroline st
ood still and let him kiss her.

“I like to get that out of the way early in the evening. Reduces tension.” He slid his hands from her waist and took hold of her hand.
S
tepp
ing
back onto the sidewalk
, he
tugg
ed
her gently along
.

“Right,” she replied, laugh
ing, her eyes glowing with a hint of desire
.

“You’re something in the moonlight,” he murmured, an appreciative glance sweeping up her body, “especially in that dress.”

Together they walked along the nearly empty sidewalk. Only
cars moving up Madison Avenue broke the stillness of the night.
Caroline turned to regard Case,
unable to forget
his kiss
,
s
he ran her tongue over her lower lip, tasting him there, and slowed her pace.

“Don’t do…what you’re doing,” he said.

“What?” She asked as she cocked an eyebrow at him.

“With your tongue…I’m only human and if you do that again…I don’t know, I might have to marry you.”

She burst out laughing and he pulled her into an embrace, seizing the opportunity to kiss her again, more
deeply. She melted against him.

“It might take a long time to get you home at this pace,” he said, “a very long time.”

“Ask me if I care,” she said, staring into his eyes.