The Heartbreaker (11 page)

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Authors: Vicki Lewis Thompson

BOOK: The Heartbreaker
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“Other than telling me there were crocodiles in the drainage ditches?”
“That was make-believe and you knew it. I mean about serious stuff.”
“I hope you haven't, Mike.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “Meaning?”
“I'm choosing to believe your story over Alana's. If I ever find out that it's not true—”
“It's true, even though I understand why you wouldn't want to believe it.”
“On the contrary. Believing you is the only way I can live with myself. So you'd better be telling me the truth.”
“I am. Now let's go see how that ornery old guy is doing.” He took her hand as they continued down toward Ernie's room. So she trusted him for now, he thought as he walked beside her down the hallway. He wondered if she would still trust him when Alana came home and called him a liar. Because unless Alana had changed, that's exactly what she'd do.
Mike braced himself to see a sicker-looking version of his father as they walked into his room. Fortunately Ernie was awake with his bed rolled partway up. Although his color still wasn't great, he didn't look nearly as pale as he had the night before.
He managed a smile. “Well, look who's here. You two decide to knock off work and drive up together?”
Mike realized his father might not remember they'd both been there the night before. “Something like that,” he said. “You gave us a scare, Dad.”
“So they tell me.” His attention turned to Beth. “You're shinin' like a new penny. Suits you.”
Mike glanced at Beth to see how she was taking that.
Sure enough, she was blushing. “I'm just happy you came through this thing okay,” she said.
“That's flatterin' but I don't think an old geezer like me is what put such a bloom on you.”
Her blush deepened. “I—”
“Never mind. Come give me a peck on the cheek and then let me talk to Mike alone for a bit.”
Beth followed Ernie's instructions. “Get better,” she said as she kissed him. Then she walked past Mike on her way out of the room. Her glance told him clearly that she didn't want him giving Ernie any details of their recent encounter.
He shook his head slightly to let her know he wouldn't.
“I'll just be down the hall, schmoozing with the nurses,” she said as she left the room.
“Come here, Mike,” Ernie said when she was gone. Mike felt almost like a kid again as he responded to his father's summons. He pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down. “I'm here, Dad.”
“Something's happenin' between you two, isn't it?”
“Yeah.”
“Serious?”
“Yeah.”
“Alana's comin” home.”
Mike nodded. “I know.”
“I wanna know if you're gonna be able to handle this.”
Mike gazed into his father's eyes, dark with unexpressed physical pain. “I'll handle it, Dad. I screwed it up eight years ago, but I'll handle it this time.”
“Good.” His father closed his eyes.
Mike touched Ernie's arm. His skin was alarmingly dry and papery. “Want me to call the nurse?”
“No. I'm okay.” Ernie opened his eyes. “Damned nuisance. I need to be there in case things go bad.”
“I won't let them go bad.”
“Pete said he might be able to be there, but I don't know if he can.”
Mike started to panic. His father was hallucinating. “Let me get a nurse, Dad.”
His eyes flew open. “No!” Then a faint smile touched his lips. “Oh, I see what you're worried about. That business about Pete wanting to be there.”
“Pete's gone, Dad.”
“Not quite, he ain't.”
“Dad—”
“Listen, Mike. I'm gonna tell you this, but you gotta promise you won't tell none of the people in this hospital.”
“Dad, I can't promise that. Too much is at stake, here.”
“Then I ain't telling you.”
Mike glared at him and soon decided it was better that somebody hear this confession, whatever it was. “Okay, I promise.”
“First of all, I ain't crazy. Second of all, when I had the heart attack, I met Pete on the other side. Since then he's been talkin' to me.”
“Dad,” Mike said gently, “certain drugs can make you think that—”
“It ain't the drugs. But never mind. The point I wanna make is that Pete and me always knew you and Beth should be together. See, Alana needs lots of people around her, but you and Beth, you're more the solitary type. Your personalities just fit, y'know? So Pete and me, we're pulling for you two to work it out.”
“Oh, boy.” Mike slumped back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. First his father admitted he was talking to the dead, and now he claimed to have known all along what Mike was just finding out. “How come you never said that you thought Beth was the one for me instead of Alana?”
“Ha. I hope you have a kid someday and he's a know-it-all just like you. Back then I couldn't tell you the sky was blue, let alone you'd picked the wrong Nightingale girl. But maybe you've growed up enough to fix it. Beth's the one you need to marry.”
Mike sat forward in the chair again. “Wait a minute, Dad. I never said a thing about marrying Beth. Sure, we get along great, but I don't know if I'm cut out for marriage. And Beth wants to stay in Bisbee, don't forget. I'm not planning to give up my trips to South America, so I don't know if—”
“Yammer, yammer, yammer. You should listen to yourself. When you love a woman, you make adjustments. She makes adjustments. Life's too short not to.”
When you love a woman
. His father was forcing him to acknowledge what he'd been unwilling to admit to himself, even after all the years of fantasizing, even after the glory of what he'd shared with Beth only hours ago. He'd been unwilling to admit to an emotion so strong because then his life would truly change forever.
“Cat got your tongue?” his father asked, his voice faint.
Mike realized his father had closed his eyes again and was looking very tired. “I was just thinking about what you said,” he said. “Listen. I should go so you can get some rest.”
“I could use a nap, I guess.”
“Then you do that.” Mike stood. As he leaned down to press his lips against his father's forehead, the jaguar tooth necklace shifted beneath his shirt. He straightened and pulled the leather cord over his head. “I need you to hang onto this for me, Dad,” he said. He half expected an argument as he lifted his father's head from the pillow and slipped on the necklace.
Ernie just looked at him. “I can see you're bound I should have this thing around my neck.”
“Humor me.”
“Guess I hafta. Judy'll get a real charge out of this here tooth.”
“Everything's gonna be okay, Dad.”
“You bet.”
Mike swallowed. “See you soon, Dad.”
10
C
LOUDS BUBBLED like giant soapsuds on the horizon as Mike and Beth headed toward the Time Tunnel in the Mule Mountains. At six in the evening the sun still baked the Arizona desert, and the rental car's air-conditioning was turned up to high.
Beth took off her sunglasses as they entered the tunnel The closer they got to Bisbee, the more she sensed impending disaster. “She'll be here soon, Mike. I can feel it.”
“So she'll be here.” He laid his sunglasses on the dash and reached for her hand. “I want you to know that I'm not going to confront her about the lie. I understand why she did it, and as long as you believe my version, I'm willing to let it go. Maybe she wants to let it go, too.”
“That's possible, but I'll bet she'll try to start things up again with you.”
“Not if we let her know right away that we're involved.”
She took a deep breath. “God, that's going to be hard.”
“We can do it together.”
“No, I think I should tell her by myself.”
He squeezed her hand. “So it won't be two against one?”
“Something like that.” As the car emerged from the tunnel, Beth tried to convince herself that Alana would be able to handle the news. It was a tough sell.
“This has put us another day behind on the cutters,” Mike said.
“I can live with that. All things considered, the cutter schedule doesn't seem very important right now.”
Mike made the left-hand turn into town and headed toward the glass studio. The mountains surrounding the town threw Main Street into shadow, which gave an illusion of coolness to the evening. “The cutter schedule might be more important than you realize.”
“What do you mean?”
“If sales start going through the roof, you'd have the capital to expand into other countries.”
“Other countries?” She laughed in disbelief. “Oh, right, Mike. Like where, Brazil?”
“Why not? Instead of desert scenes, you could make rain forest windows. Think of what a scarlet macaw would look like in stained glass.”
The concept appealed to her immediately. “Or think of orchids, or a toucan, or even a yellow-and-black jaguar with green eyes.” Her glance went instinctively to the spot where the leather necklace made a slight imprint under his shirt. It wasn't there. “Mike, your necklace. Don't tell me you've lost—”
“No. I gave it to my dad.”
“Oh.” She was afraid the gesture meant he was more concerned about his father than he'd let on. “For good luck?”
“In a way.” His gaze met hers for a moment. “Hey, don't look so worried. He needed a conversation starter, that's all. Something to amuse the nurses until he gets his rubber cigar back.”
“Okay.” She wasn't convinced, but she wouldn't push the issue.
“Anyway, back to your proposed expansion.” He pulled up in front of the studio and stopped the car, but left the engine running. “If you'd even consider Brazil, you might want to make a trip down there sometime. I could take you. We could investigate the idea of a satellite studio.”
She stared at him, her heart pounding. “What are you saying?”
He turned to look at her. “I don't know yet,” he said softly. “Just thinking out loud a little. How does any of that strike you?”
“You wouldn't be happy helping me run a satellite glass studio in Brazil.”
“You always seem so sure that you know what would and wouldn't make me happy.”
“Mike, I know you! You've always wanted to explore the jungle. As soon as you left Bisbee you headed straight for the Amazon, and before long there you were, guiding expeditions through the most remote corners of the rain forest.”
“You never asked if I've been happy doing that.”
“Okay, have you?”
“Sometimes. Sometimes I feel like the loneliest guy in the universe. Ever since I left here there's been a big chunk missing out of my life, Beth. I never wanted to admit what it was.” He paused and studied her. “Or who I was missing.”
She struggled not to become giddy with hope. She had to remember what he'd been through in the past few days, and how the stress might have affected his emotions. Once Ernie was well, he might revert to his former independent self. “I'm afraid you'd get impatient, taking an inexperienced person like me into your beloved rain forest.”
“Are you kidding? I'd love showing it to you. Both you and my dad, as a matter of fact. I know you wouldn't want to go as deep into the jungle as I've gone, but—”
“Don't be so sure.”
He regarded her quietly for a moment. “It seems we've both been making assumptions.”
“Yes, it does.”
He took a deep breath and let it out “Wow. It's been quite a day.”
“I'd say so.”
“And it's not over yet.” He touched the tip of his finger to her nose. “So you'd better go upstairs and find that red dress. I'll be back in an hour to pick you up. I—oh, hell.” His attention moved beyond her. “Here comes Huxford.”
She turned in the seat, and sure enough, Colby was approaching the car. She unsnapped her seat belt. “I'll take care of him.”
Mike turned off the engine. “No, I'll take care of him. The guy is invading my space, and I don't like it.”
“Mike, I think it would be better if I handled this.”
“Afraid I'll tick him off?”
“Yes, frankly.”
“What difference does it make? His company's not getting the patent, and he's not getting you, so he can take a flying leap, as far as I'm concerned. I think I'll just tell him so.” He opened the door.
“Mike! I'm asking you not to confront him! I'll fight my own battles!”
He closed the door again and turned to gaze at her. “Or could it be that you don't want to fight at all? Could it be that you want to keep Huxford hanging around, as a backup?”
“That's unfair! And speaking of backups, you never did explain why you had Cindy's name on that piece of paper!”
“So I could remember to tell my dad hello for her. Which I forgot to do, in all the excitement. She really likes Ernie and wants him to get better.”
“Oh.”
“Huxford's waiting for you on the sidewalk. Better go talk to him.”
She picked up her purse. “Mike, he's not a backup.”
His glance was intense. “No, he's not.” In a quick move he pulled her toward him and kissed her so thoroughly that she dropped her purse. Finally, when they were both breathing hard, he released her. “And now he knows it,” he said in a voice husky with desire.
She straightened her blouse and steadied her breathing. “Was that absolutely necessary?”
“Yep. See you in an hour. We'll eat at the Copper Queen. Wear your red dress.”
“I just might wear blue.” She picked up her purse again and opened the car door.
“Bet you don't.”
She closed the car door without comment, and Mike drove away, leaving her to face Colby alone. But that was what she'd asked for. She hadn't asked him to kiss her so possessively in front of Colby, however.
“I was worried about you,” Colby said as he came toward her. “People around here said you never close your shop on a weekday unless there's some sort of emergency.”
“There was. Mike's father had another medical crisis.”
“So you were comforting him just now?”
She wished she'd left her sunglasses on. “Colby, I'd like to keep my personal business out of our discussions, if you don't mind.”
“You're about to make a fool of yourself, you know.”
“Colby, please. If you'll excuse me, I've had a long day and I need to go inside and check my messages.” She took her keys from her purse and started toward the shop.
He followed her. “You're throwing away the opportunity of a lifetime because of some guy who'll leave you high and dry.”
She turned back to him. “What am I throwing away? I thought you agreed I could have a two-week extension before signing the contract.”
“I wasn't talking about the damned contract!”
She looked at him without comprehending. When she finally did, she had a most inappropriate reaction. She laughed.
“Oh, so you think it's funny?” His face contorted with anger. “You think a personal liaison with me is so ridiculous that it makes you laugh?”
She sobered immediately. “I'm sorry, Colby. That was really awful of me. I didn't mean to insult you. It's just that I've had quite a time of it, and not much sleep. I'm worried about Mike's father, and sometimes nervous anxiety makes people laugh at the wrong times. I've even heard of people laughing at funerals.”
“An appropriate comparison. This will be the funeral of your precious cutter promotion, I can assure you.”
So he was withdrawing his company's offer. She felt relieved. “I'm sorry you feel that way, but I understand. I'm sure Handmade can survive just fine without this tool in their inventory.”
“Oh, I expect to get your cutter patent for Handmade eventually. I expect you'll soon be begging me to give you something,
anything
for the patent. But we didn't have to play hardball, you and I. I had hoped this could be a mutually satisfying experience.” His gaze raked over her. “On several levels. But it's obvious from what I saw in the car and the whisker burn on your face that Tremayne got there ahead of me.”
She hadn't realized she was going to slap him until her palm connected with his face. She'd forgotten she still held her keys in that same hand. The edge of her door key bit into his cheek, and as they stood staring at each other in shock, he began to bleed.
“Oh, dear,” she said, reaching toward him. “I didn't mean—”
“Keep away from me,” he snarled, backing up. “You've made your choice. Now we'll see if you can live with it”
“Colby, I apologize. Really, the tension has been terrific recently. I really didn't intend to hurt you like that. I forgot the keys were still in my hand.”
“As they used to say in the Old West, it's only a scratch.” He continued to back away down the sidewalk. “You'll be the one who'll bleed in the end, Beth. I could have prevented that, but there's no stopping it now.”
She gazed after him, not sure why he felt he could make such dire predictions. Mike would return to the cutter manufacturing tomorrow, and she felt confident he'd keep the orders filled until other machinists were trained to take over the operation. Eventually Ernie would return to supervise, and then...then maybe some of those expansion plans Mike had talked about could be considered. She still couldn't picture Mike putting those plans into operation personally, but that didn't mean it wasn't a good idea, or that she and Mike couldn't devise a way to see each other more often. From her perspective the future of the Nightingale-Tremayne partnership, both business and personal, looked bright.
Still puzzled by Colby's behavior, she unlocked the shop and walked inside to turn off the security system. Apparently Colby was just a sore loser who thought she'd be frightened by such talk. He didn't understand the new confidence she had now that Mike was in her corner.
She walked behind the counter and punched the Play button on her answering machine.
The first message was Alana's, a cheerful
“Greetings from deep in the Ozarks.
” Alana paused, obviously waiting for Beth to pick up the phone.
“Guess you're in the shower or something,
” she said, sounding disappointed.
“I'll call back.”
Beth's stomach knotted. When she was with Mike, she could push aside the sense of betrayal she felt concerning Alana, but her sister's upbeat voice on the answering machine brought her guilt back full force. Mike might want to believe that Alana wasn't still in love with him, but Beth knew better.
The next message was also Alana's.
“Beth? You around yet?” Another pause. “Guess not. Maybe we got our signals crossed and you forgot I was supposed to call today. I'd really like an update on Ernie, though. I had a dream about Ernie and Dad last night, and it made me—I don't know—really homesick, I guess you could say. Maybe I'll just call the hospital in a little while and check on him.”
Beth gazed out me front window of the shop. Enough light remained in the day to filter through the vivid colors of
The Embrace
. She'd always thought Alana hadn't known who the piece represented. What if she'd been wrong, and the work had been taunting Alana with the past all along?

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