Pillow Talk (27 page)

Should she wait for him? Find him and talk to him? Ellen and Teddy ran outside to search around the house for Jem and Meg walked slowly back towards the staircase.

She paused to watch Samantha playing "date.'' Her daughter dipped Ken towards Barbie and said, "Would you like to go to the movies with me?" Samantha accepted for Barbie, then walked the two dolls hand in hand up one of the stairs.

Some things
, Meg thought, followed a time-
honored tradition. She'd never asked a boy or a man on a date and she didn't feel like she should start now. Parker had driven her away. If they were to be together, she needed him to want her badly enough that he would come after her. Even if that meant following her all the way to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Twenty-four

C
ars stretched as far ahead as Parker could see. He'd
been stalled on the I-10 bridge across Lake Pontchartrain for almost twenty minutes. Rain that had been only a light mist was building to a driving force that battered the windows and challenged the windshield wipers.

After assuring Parker in no uncertain terms he'd run away before he'd ever go back to that school, Gus had fallen into an exhausted sleep. Jem's scruffy head lay between Gus's bony knees. Every so often the dog opened one eye and checked on Parker but other than that seemed utterly content crowded into the floor space of the Porsche between Gus's legs and the door.

The traffic remained immobile. Parker tried once more to reach someone at Ponthier Place. Each time he'd called, the answering service had come on. He had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and the only thing that could cure it would be finding Meg still in New Orleans. Though if she had gone back to Las Vegas, Parker would be on the next flight out.

Once more, the recorded message filtered over the phone.

"Damn." Parker switched off his phone.

Gus stirred and so did his shadow. "Hey, what did you say?" His nephew didn't look at all sleepy as he stared at Parker.

"You're right, Gus, I didn't need to swear."

"Not unless I get to." He sounded hopeful.

Parker shook his head. He'd have to get used to watching his tongue around the kids. The kids. He gripped the wheel.

"What's wrong?"

"Must be an accident on the bridge."

"No, with you."

Parker reached over and brushed a hand over Gus's crew cut hair. He started to say "nothing" but Gus was too perceptive to buy that answer. "I wanted to talk to Meg and couldn't reach her over the phone."

"Hey, why didn't she come with you to get me like last time?"

"She and the kids had gone off to do something."

"What?"

Gus sure asked a lot of questions. Parker said, "I don't know. Maybe they went to the zoo." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he could have kicked himself for not thinking of that idea sooner. He'd heard the kids asking about the zoo after they'd seen the
lighted elephants at the edge of Audubon Park. That would explain them leaving Jem behind.

"I've never been to the zoo," Gus said, a wistful note in his voice.

If Parker could wrap his hands around Marianne's neck and squeeze hard, he would. Come to think of it, though, neither his father nor Teensy had taken him to the zoo as a child. He'd gone with his grandparents or Horton. "I'll take you," Parker said. "Before Christmas."

"With Teddy and Ellen and Samantha and Jem?"

What had Meg said about not promising something he couldn't deliver? Well, he had to deliver on this one, and not just for Gus's sake. He nodded. "We'll all go, except Jem."

The mutt raised his head and yelped.

"It's okay, we'll take you to the country and let you chase some roosters." Gus patted the dog's head. "Jem doesn't like to be left out."

Parker heard that message. Gus was the one who didn't like to be left out and he couldn't blame the child. "Your great-grandfather and I are going to work things out with your mother so that you can stay with us," he said. No matter what it cost, and Parker was realistic enough to know Marianne could be bought; Gus wasn't going back to her.

"Are you going to marry Meg?"

"What?"

Gus shrugged. "She is my stepmother. And
that way we'd be a family." Under his breath, he added, “And nobody would send four kids away to school."

"Don't worry about that miserable school," Parker said. "And whether or not I marry Meg depends on her. She may have plans to go back to Las Vegas." Plans he'd do whatever it took to change. Trust Gus to get right to the point. He was going to marry Meg—if she'd have him.

"Vegas," Gus said in a voice heavy with scorn. "Who would live there when they could live in New Orleans. You wouldn't believe all the things they don't have there. Ellen told me they don't have Mardi Gras, or streetcars, or a river. And she'd never even heard of
pain perdu!
"

Parker smiled. The sweet French bread dish was Gus's favorite breakfast item.

His car phone rang. Jem yelped.

Grandfather's voice boomed in his ear. "Everything okay with Gus?"

"He's here with me now."

"Good. At least that's under control. Now about Meg—"

"What about her?" Parker clenched the phone with his left hand. The traffic began to inch forward and he shifted gears with his right.

"She's leaving the Lakefront Airport at five o'clock on the company plane."

Only Gus's interested expression kept Par
ker's reaction under control. "You're helping her leave?"

"She's not gone yet, you young fool. I thought you'd find her at the house and the problem would have been solved hours ago."

Parker checked his watch. It was almost impossible for him to make it into New Orleans East before five o'clock. "I'll make it there," Parker said. "Thanks for calling."

Grandfather chuckled. "I'll be happy to give the bride away."

The line clicked dead and Parker lowered the phone.

He'd been a fool the other night. When Meg had asked him why he wanted her to stay, he'd rattled on like a tour guide. What difference did it make whether Meg saw Christmas in the Oaks at City Park or the antique shops on Royal Street? None of the safe answers he'd given had been answers from the heart.

He should have fallen on his knees and told her he loved her and couldn't live without her. Why hadn't he done that? Parker gunned the engine as the traffic began to flow.

He hadn't been ready to admit his feelings the other night. Perhaps the timing was for the best. And even though he still wanted to clear the air over the circumstances surrounding her marriage to his brother, Parker knew the details were just that. Details. Because what truly mattered were their feelings for one another.

* * * * *

T
he rain had slacked off a bit while Meg watched from the terminal window as a worker stowed their luggage in the small jet.

The kids whined and groused about being forced to leave without knowing Jem was safe. She couldn't blame them; she felt much the same. "Come on, let's go," she said, pointing them towards the door that led outside to where they would cross to the plane.

Ellen muttered under her breath, Teddy wore a distant look of unhappiness, and Samantha followed the other two in silence. Raindrops pelted them as they walked to the stairs pushed up to the side of the plane. Despite the wetness, not one of them picked up their pace.

Meg had just set one foot on the top step by the cabin door when Ellen said, "Why are we running away?"

She turned and looked at her daughter on the step below. "What did you say?"

Ellen planted her hands on her hips. "It feels like we're running away because Jem isn't safe and Parker wasn't here to say good-bye and Gus is
…" Ellen clamped her li
ps together and Meg knew her daughter was battling both anger and sorrow.

She held out her arms but Ellen refused to accept the comfort. The plane's steward leaned out of the cabin door, a friendly smile on his face, "Ready, are we?"

Ready? Ready to run away, as Ellen suggested? Or ready to face Parker and gamble on
sharing her feelings with him? Meg brushed the moisture from Ellen's face and said, "Wait here while I have a word with the pilot."

She turned and the steward followed her to the cockpit door. Meg knew they thought she was nuts when she told them they wouldn't be flying to Las Vegas, but she really didn't care.

Especially when she heard a shriek from outside the plane and Ellen cried out, "It's Gus!"

"And Jem," Samantha said.

Which
meant
…

Meg whirled around, then remembered her dignity. Slowly, she stepped into the doorway of the plane.

P
arker, with Gus and Jem at his heels, raced through the small building that served
as a terminal at
Lakefront Airport. The people there knew him as a regular, a dignified executive who flew in and out on business on the Ponthier jet.

There was nothing dignified about the way he ran helter-skelter toward the tarmac. Right after Grandfather had called him, Parker's first instinct had been to pick up the phone again, call the airport, and instruct the pilot to delay takeoff. After all, the pilot worked more for him than for Grandfather.

But some instinct had warned him off that action. Meg would interpret it, fairly accurately, as an example of Ponthier power. He wanted her to stay, but he also wanted her to
make that choice of her own free will. So, acting against the ingrained habits of his years of authority, he let matters take their own course.

He spotted the children first, on the steps to the plane, but rather than walking up, they were headed down.

And then he saw Meg, framed in the doorway of the plane's cabin. His heart caught and he started to call out to her. But no words came out of his throat.

Meg's kids shouted and ran down the stairs towards Gus and Jem.

Gus tugged on his jacket. "Jeez, Uncle P
arker, don't let her get away."

Parker laughed. Rain sprinkled his face as he covered the yards to the plane, passing the happy huddle of four children and one dog.

"I knew you'd get him back,"
Teddy said.

The raindrops mingled with what seemed suspiciously like moisture in Parker's own eyes. At the foot of the steps, he paused and looked up. Meg hadn't moved from the doorway.

"Forgive me, Meg?"

She gazed down at him, her eyes larger and darker than ever. She lifted one foot; it hovered in the air between the doorway and the first step downward.

"Please?"

Meg moved out of the covering of the cabin.

"I was angry with Jules, not you. I said horrible things and I am so sorry."

Meg moved one step closer to him.

Hope driving him, Parker did the same, climbing the stairs till he stood just below her. "I should have listened to what you said about doing anything for your family." He pointed towards the children. They were all talking at once near the edge of the steps. With Jem's ecstatic yelping, his and Meg's words couldn't carry to the children.

"What changed your mind?" Her voice was low and serious.

"Grandfather kicked me in the butt," Parker said. "And I spent a long night thinking about my brother."

Meg nodded. "It's important to me that you understand, even though I know that's a lot to ask."

Parker gazed at her. He wanted more than anything to take that last step that separated them. But he needed to ask one more question; if he didn't, he knew he would always wonder.

"What is it, Parker?" Meg asked in a gentle voice.

"Why you?" He blurted it out. "Or do you know why Jules picked you? I mean, out of a million women in Las Vegas, what made him think you would do that job?"

Meg ran a hand over her damp hair. "I'm glad you asked, Parker. I would have told you last night but you lost your temper so fast."

He shook his head. "Sorry," he said, grinning ruefully. "Don't usually do that."

Meg smiled, "I don't usually marry for hire, either. Anyway, Jules told me why. He'd been watching me wait tables and he said I had the class to carry it off, but more importantly, he'd seen me show my children's pictures to this lady at the next table and tell her I was a widow." Meg sighed. "She was such a sweet lady, too, that I trusted her. And do you know she slipped off to the ladies room after four drinks and stiffed me for them. I had to pay for them out of my pocket and I was so upset that Jules asked me about it. So I blurted out more about myself than I would have under normal circumstances."

"So he picked you because he knew you'd do it for your kids."

Meg nodded.

"Maybe that makes my brother smarter than I was last night." Parker reached out a hand and clasped Meg's in his. "Now that we have all that straight, do you think we can get on to the important stuff?"

"Important stuff?" Meg murmured the words, her heart beating faster. She could barely believe Parker was one step away from her, standing in the light rain, gazing up at her with love in his eyes.

"Loving you
,"
he said, and stepping up, took her in his arms. "Because I do love you."

"Oh, Parker," Meg said, holding him tight and snuggling against his chest, "I was so afraid it was only me."

He shook his head. "You are the woman of my dreams."

Meg raised her eyes and searched his face. "I've loved you since our first night together, since the moment in the mirror. But I was afraid that after what I'd done, you'd never accept my feelings."

He sketched the outline of her lips. "How can I be angry at either you or my brother when what he did brought us together?"

"I love you so much," she whispered, lifting her lips to his.

"Hey, if Meg's not going away, can we go to McDonald's?"

Gus's shouted question interrupted their kiss. Meg smiled and Parker said, "Let's get our family out of the rain."