Trading Secrets (33 page)

Sabrina sounded bewildered. “What about the fact that you’re unemployed? What about getting kicked out of the Army? Didn’t they get upset about all that?”

Matt yawned, remembering the initial tension in the den. “Oh, a little. But I convinced them to look at my positive points.”

“Which are?” Sabrina prompted suspiciously.

“I’m helpful, thrifty, and loyal.”

“You’re not going to tell me everything that happened in that den tonight, are you?”

“You wouldn’t understand it all, Sabrina,” he said as gently as possible. “Just as I don’t understand why I came out and found you agreeing to marry me.”

“You may have a point,” she admitted, snuggling closer. “Talking to Liz and Mary helped me get some things straight in my head. Things I’ve known all along but hadn’t put in order.”

“Maybe that’s what happened in the den,” Matt suggested sardonically. He’d gone into that den fully intending to pursue his baiting of Nolan, Jeffrey, and Bennet. But he had changed his mind almost immediately. Somehow it had become infinitely more important to establish his claim on Sabrina in her family’s eyes. The scene in the den could have easily turned into a brawl.

He remembered the moment when he’d told the Brothers Grim that if they didn’t lay off he would take Sabrina and leave the house. When he’d promised them that she would go with him without an argument, the light of sweet reason had appeared in Nolan’s and Jeffrey’s eyes. Bennet Chase had gotten the same helpful illumination a few minutes later when Matt had said he would take care of Sabrina, regardless of who got in his way. After that the whiskey Bennet Chase had dragged out had helped smooth the way for further conversation. It was toward the end that they’d all hit upon the brilliant idea of ruining Talbot Sheffield.

“You’re sure you don’t care anymore about Sheffield?”

“I’m sure. Certain you don’t need to prove yourself to the Army?”

“I’m certain. We’ve changed since we first met in Acapulco, haven’t we?”

“Maybe. Or maybe things have just gotten clearer.” They lay in silence for a long time and then Matt exhaled slowly and rolled over on top of Sabrina. “Hell,” he growled.

“What’s wrong?”

“It feels like someone’s going to work inside my head with a sledgehammer.”

“You’re telling me you don’t want to make love because you’ve got a headache?” she asked in mocking disbelief.

“Duty calls,” he answered valiantly. Deliberately he insinuated his legs between hers.

“Forget it. I’ll get you an aspirin. And then I’ll massage your head for you.” She wriggled out from under him and slid off the bed.

In the darkness he watched her as she fumbled in her purse for the aspirin. She was wearing one of his T-shirts, he realized. They had only picked up a few essentials for her and Brad this morning. A nightgown had not been on the list, apparently. He liked seeing her in the T-shirt. It gave him a comfortably possessive feeling.

“I was right about you that first night in Acapulco,” he said suddenly.

“How’s that?” she asked absently, stepping into the bathroom to run a glass of water.

“You weren’t the type to go roaming around, picking up men in bars.” He knew he sounded complacent. An uncharitable observer might even have labeled him smug.

“So I’ve heard,” she said, coming toward him. “But what type am I?”

“You’re the type to run a tacky souvenir stand, marry a sleazy ex-adventurer, and continue the ongoing war against the IRS.”

“It does sound like a well-rounded life.”

The first one down to breakfast the next morning, predictably enough, was Brad. He was in an extremely good-natured mood, sitting at the round kitchen table and watching hungrily while Sabrina made pancakes.

“Where’s Dad?” he inquired as he drank orange juice.

“Still in bed.” Sabrina smiled, remembering Matt’s utterly still figure.

“When are you guys going to get married?”

“Don’t rush us, Brad. This is a big step, you know,” Sabrina told him mildly.

“I know,” Brad said quite seriously. “I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea at first. That’s why I was
sorta
rude in the beginning.”

“I figured you were a little upset,” Sabrina said, flipping pancakes.

Brad hesitated and then said quite carefully, “Some people don’t exactly like the idea of having someone else’s kid live with them.” The fact that he spoke from experience was very plain in his voice.

“Not everybody gets along with everyone else in the world. We probably do okay because I grew up used to having brothers around.”

“Nolan and Jeffrey?” The explanation intrigued Brad. His hazel eyes brightened. “Yeah, that might explain why you’re getting used to having me around.”

It was as if he was relieved to have a solid reason for her tolerance so that he wouldn’t have to fear the prospect of having her change her mind, Sabrina realized.

Before Sabrina could respond to the comment, her father’s voice interrupted from the doorway. “Fortunately for you she hasn’t forgotten everything she learned while growing up with two brothers, Brad. I see she can still flip pancakes.”

“And I still hate doing laundry,” Sabrina answered with a grin. “All those years of having to keep track of Nolan and Jeffrey’s wardrobe took their toll. Luckily Matt doesn’t seem to mind that end of things.”

“Listen to her,” Bennet Chase complained as he sat down at the table. “You’d think I’d made a little slave out of the girl. Was it my fault she was the only female?”

“You chauvinist.”

“What’s a chauvinist?” Brad asked.

“Something I’m going to make certain you don’t turn into,” she vowed as she served up the pancakes. “It’s going to be one of my missions in life while you go through your impressionable teen years.”

“Be careful, Brad,” Bennet advised. “I think she’s serious.”

Brad didn’t appear to mind. He wolfed down his pancakes and then announced he was going to explore the neighborhood. Bennet Chase gave his daughter an amused glance as the boy disappeared.

“A handful.”

“But a nice kid,” she said lightly.

“And I assume he goes with the territory?” Bennet said quietly.

“Oh, yes.” Sabrina smiled. “He’s definitely part of the package. I’ve discovered that when you deal with marriage you’re dealing with a very large package. I think it would have been simpler and neater in a lot of ways to continue with plan A.”

“I’m afraid to ask what plan A was.”

“A series of charming, lighthearted affairs that would last from now until I was in a rest home.” Bennet winced. “What changed your mind?”

“I found a man who needs a home, not an affair. Matt just isn’t cut out for a fleeting, superficial romance. He needs something more solid and secure. It’s his nature to do things with a lot of commitment and intensity. He’s been floundering a bit during the past couple of years because all the things that had been solid in his life, like his career, had been destroyed. But now he’s reestablished himself.” Sabrina sat down to eat a batch of pancakes with her father. “How’s your head this morning?”

“I thought I was holding up nobly.”

“I just noticed you were moving rather cautiously.”

“Haven’t tied one on like that for years. Can’t even remember the last time. Bankers aren’t supposed to do that sort of thing, you know. Your future husband may be a bad influence on the family.”

Sabrina poured syrup. “I don’t know about his influence on your morals, but he seems to have pulled off a small coup in the den last night.”

Bennet grinned unexpectedly. “I like him, Sabrina. He’s not at all the kind of man I would have chosen for you—”

“I know. He’s not the kind I would have chosen for myself. Except that I did choose him,” she corrected herself absently, remembering how she’d picked Matt out of the crowd in the hotel lounge that first night.

“But I think I can entrust you to his care,” Bennet finished calmly. “I had the distinct impression from the way he handled the three of us in the library last night that he’d go to hell and back for you. A father can’t ask for more than that from his daughter’s future husband. But I think what really interested me was that after he told us the whole story of these past few days, I knew you’d do the same for him. That really made an impact. My God, Sabrina, I wanted to kill Matt for having put you in jeopardy. But then I realized how strong the bond must be between the two of you for you to have gotten into that situation in the first place. In a sense, I’m grateful. I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever marry and establish a home of your own. You’ve spent so much of your life trying to avoid all the plans I made for you that I was coming to think you’d avoid this one, too.” Bennet paused. “Did you really feel that I made a slave of you?”

“No, of course not,” she told him gently. “And you made certain Nolan and Jeff had their share of chores.”

“I had some notion of trying to teach you housekeeping,” Bennet admitted with a sigh. “I thought that it was my duty as your parent to teach you the sort of things women always seem to know. How to cook and clean and pick up after a man or a child. The kind of things your mother always did when she was alive.”

Sabrina smiled whimsically, barely remembering her mother. “Women who wind up raising small boys alone are always worried about providing them with a proper role model; afraid of feminizing them, I suppose. I guess it’s natural that a man who got stuck raising a little girl might have a reverse set of worries.”

Bennet nodded slowly. “I sure as hell did worry at times,” he admitted fervently. “But lately I think I’d begun to worry most of all that I’d done something very, very wrong in raising you. You’re thirty years old and not once have you come anywhere near marriage. You can’t imagine how that made me feel, Sabrina. I know women aren’t truly happy unless they’re married and have children of their own and I’ve been terrified that I’d ruined your life somehow; made you unable to find fulfillment in a home and family.”

Sabrina made a rude noise.

Bennet frowned. “I’m serious, Sabrina. A lot of men never discover that kind of fulfillment because they’re too busy with the outside world. The woman naturally inherits the problems and the rewards of raising the family. But in a sense I was lucky. I was forced to find out for myself just what it means to make a home. And I … I didn’t want you to miss the experience because I’d somehow turned you off the whole thing.”

“To tell you the truth, I had no thought of marriage on my mind when I first met Matt. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to marry him until last night.”

“What happened last night?”

“Something clicked. I realized that I knew something about what a home should feel like. I owe that to you, Dad. I know I was rebellious, obnoxious, and obstinate at times while I was growing up, but I always knew what a home was supposed to be. And last night I realized that Matt was the man with whom I wanted to create one. I think he knew that was what he wanted well before I did, even though he didn’t have such a strong notion of what it was supposed to feel like. He’s lost touch with his parents and he almost lost touch with Brad.”

Bennet nodded. “In spite of everything we’ve never lost touch, have we, Sabrina?”

“No,” she said thoughtfully. “I was lucky. You did a heck of a job making a home for three kids, Dad.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Bennet said softly. “There were times when I was damned worried that I wouldn’t pull it off.”

Sabrina looked at her father with new perception. “It’s scary, isn’t it?”

Bennet shrugged. “It’s a commitment. A big one. It has to be the most important thing in a person’s life. But there is a certain kind of satisfaction in it.”

Sabrina considered that. “Rather like selling two dozen stuffed armadillos in one afternoon, I imagine.”

“Trust Sabrina, to put things in their proper perspective.” Massaging his temple, Matt sauntered over to a chair and sank down onto it.

Bennet gazed at him condescendingly. “Remind me to give you some tips on holding your whiskey, my boy. If you’re going to join the family, you’ll have to learn a few of the finer points of socializing with us.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Matt murmured. “Sabrina, could you put a couple of aspirin on top of my pancakes?”

Two weeks later Matt stuffed the last bath towel into the washing machine, set the dials, and went to the refrigerator to get himself a well-deserved beer. He had about an hour before Sabrina got home from work, he decided. Settling down on the chaise longue on the patio, he took a long, satisfying swallow from the bottle and noted Brad’s improving dive. The kid was splashing around the pool with Cindy at the moment, showing off the diving techniques Matt had taught him during the past week.

Watching his son, Matt contemplated the cost of a home computer. It had come as something of a shock, to say the least. When he’d left the States, “home computers” had meant hand-held calculators.

The price of a computer was only one of the unforeseen elements of establishing family life. There was a letter on the table from his parents saying in a rather austere fashion that they would be out to meet Sabrina next month. The fact that they were coming had startled Matt. He’d had the distinct impression two years ago that his parents had more or less written him off. Sabrina was right. People changed. He decided he’d put them up in a hotel, though, not Sabrina’s living room. Reestablishing contact should be done carefully. No sense rushing into things.

Then there was the problem of settling matters with his ex-wife when she got back from Europe. But Matt wasn’t really anticipating any trouble there. Ginny, he felt certain, would be quite amenable to the idea of sending Brad to live permanently with his father. She had a new life to lead.

No, that potentially disturbing element was under control, Matt reassured himself.

He’d have to figure out how to enroll Brad in school locally. Then he’d have to see about selling the bookstore down in Acapulco. Behind him in the apartment the washing machine churned cheerfully while Matt ran through his list of satisfyingly mundane matters with which he had to contend. There was only one small detail left to be cleared up, he decided. And any day now he expected that one to resolve itself.