Treading Water (7 page)

Jamie leaned down to kiss her forehead. “So
are you.”

Startled, Frannie looked up
at him. “Are you
flirting
with me, Jamie Booth?”

“
Maybe.”

Flustered, she turned the conversation back
to Jack and Andi, who sat close to each other on the bow, engrossed
in conversation.

“
He’s attracted to her,”
Frannie said.

Jamie took a long swig from his beer.
“You’re seeing things.”

“
What’s her deal
anyway?”

“
I’m not sure. I didn’t
spend much time with her outside the office in Chicago.”

“
She was
so
nice to the girls and
genuinely interested in them.”

“
I know what you’re
thinking, Fran.”

“
And what’s
that?”

“
He might look, but he
won’t touch. You know how devoted he is to Clare.”

“
So he’s supposed to spend
the rest of his life alone?”

“
That’s the bitch of this
whole situation. Who knows what the rules are?” He glanced down at
her. “What about you? How do you plan to spend the rest of your
life?”

Stunned, she could only stare at him—tall,
blond, and devastatingly handsome. She’d loved him her entire adult
life but had never acted on it because of his friendship with Jack,
not to mention the groupies who followed him around like useless
fools. She had no desire to join the parade. “What are you up
to?”

He shrugged. “I think about you. A lot.”

A lump formed in her throat, and her heart
pounded when she looked up to find his blue eyes trained on her. “I
think about you, too. Far too much.” The craziness of this sudden
shift in their relationship filled her with nervous laughter.

He hooked an arm around her to pull her
close to him and kissed her cheek. “We’ll have to talk about this
at a more appropriate time.” Calling to Jack and Andi, Jamie said,
“Hey, you guys, we need to come about, and you’ll get wet on this
tack.”

Jack held Andi’s elbow to steady her as they
made their way to the boat’s spacious cockpit.

Frannie tossed a look to Jamie to draw his
attention to the gentle way Jack handled Andi. As Jamie rolled his
eyes at her, Frannie held a hand out to help Andi down to the
sitting area.

“
Thanks, Frannie. How about
that sunset?”

“
We ordered it just for
you,” Jamie said.

Jack refilled everyone’s drinks before he
joined them on deck. He caught Andi stifling a yawn. “Did I run you
ragged today?” he asked with a grin.

“
No, not at all, but my
flight was early, and I’m turning into a pumpkin. Will your wife
mind the long day alone with the baby?”

The three of them stared at her in stunned
silence.

Andi’s face radiated with embarrassment.
“What?”

“
Maggie is my
baby.”

“
Oh God, Jack, I’m sorry. I
thought when they said you were on family leave…I thought you’d had
a new baby. I have no idea how I leapt to that
conclusion.”

“
It’s an obvious
conclusion,” Jamie said. “You shouldn’t feel bad.”

“
I’ve really put my foot in
it. I apologize.”

“
That’s not necessary,”
Jack said.

“
Hey, girls, we’re about to
dock,” Jamie called to Kate and Maggie in the cabin. “Can you come
give us a hand?”

“
Sure.” Kate avoided eye
contact with the adults when she came up the stairs to help her
father lower the sails.

Awkward silence hung over the group as they
docked, cleaned up, and prepared to head home.

“
I can do the rest,” Jack
said.

Jamie gave Andi’s shoulder an affectionate
squeeze. Then he put a hand on Jack’s arm, and their eyes met.

Jack nodded, and Jamie left with the
others.

“
I’ve obviously upset
everyone,” Andi said. “I’m so sorry.”

She was so distressed that Jack couldn’t
help but reach out to her. He took her hand. “It’s my fault. I
assumed everyone knew what happened. You did nothing wrong, so
please don’t be upset.” He guided her to sit next to him. To ward
off the sudden chill, he tossed his jacket over her shoulders and
took her hand again. “Look at me.”

The impact of her soft brown eyes meeting
his was like a punch to the gut.

“
You didn’t know,
okay?”

She nodded.

“
Just over a year ago, my
wife was hit by a car. She’s in a coma and, well, she’s lost to
us.”

Andi gasped and clutched
his hand. “
Oh!
What I said! The girls, they heard me… I made such a big
assumption!”

“
They’re much better than
they were. We all are.”

“
Where is she
now?”

“
In a home of her own with
twenty-four-hour nursing care.” He braced himself for the blast of
pain that never materialized. At some point, he’d apparently gotten
used to the new arrangement.

“
I’m so sorry. You’re all
heartbroken.”

“
We’re resigned now. There
were months and months of heartbreak. I didn’t work for more than a
year and just went back almost two months ago. I had to get things
back to some sense of normal for my girls. My oldest daughter,
Jill, will turn seventeen soon.”

“
You adore them,” she said,
squeezing his hand.

“
Yes,” he said, “and I had
no choice but to get on with it for their sake. Frannie’s also been
a godsend. She moved in with us right after it happened, and she
helps me with everything.”

“
That’s amazing. I liked
her right away.”

“
We’ve always been close,
but now we’re on a whole other level. It was so incredible of her
to put her life on hold when we needed her.”

Andi rested her hand on his arm. “You’ve had
quite a time of it, haven’t you? All of you.”

“
It’s been rough.” As he
watched her hand gently caress his arm, the urge to kiss her
overtook him. Alarmed, he sat up straighter and broke the spell.
“I’d better get you back to your hotel. It’s been quite a day, and
we’ve got a big week ahead of us.”

“
Yes, you’re right.” She
stood to gather her things. “Thank you for today. I’ve had a lovely
time.”

“
Me, too.”

Chapter 5

A shaft of light slicing through the hotel
curtains woke Andi the next morning. When she remembered the night
before, a fresh wave of embarrassment hit her. She groaned and
buried her head under the pillow.

How could I have made such a huge
assumption?

Recalling the stricken expressions on the
faces of Jack and his family had her burrowing deeper under the
pillow, where she planned to stay forever.

Until the phone rang.

“
Ugh!” She pushed the mass
of curls off her face and reached for the receiver.
“Hello?”

“
Good morning, Andi. Hope
you slept well.”

Her face flushing with heat at the sound of
Jack’s voice, she sat up and tugged at the blanket. “Yes, I did.
Thanks.”

“
Okay if I come by to pick
you up in about an hour? We can grab a bite to eat and head out to
see some sights. Your group won’t be back in town until late this
afternoon, so we have all day.”

“
That sounds good. I’ll
meet you downstairs.” She paused, wincing once again at the awkward
memory. “Jack, I feel awful about last night.”

“
I told you, it’s fine.
Don’t give it another thought, okay?”

“
Ah, yeah, sure,” she said
with a laugh. “No chance of
that
.”

He laughed softly, and she
was startled when her skin tingled with anticipation. She couldn’t
wait to see him again.
Stop it right now,
Andrea
.
He’s a
colleague—a
married
colleague.
She thought of Tony, the
very nice man she’d recently begun seeing in Chicago.
And you’re…well…involved…

“
It’s already eighty
degrees, so plan for a hot day.”

“
See you soon.”

After she hung up the phone, she lay there
for a time thinking about Jack and Tony and her son. Eric’s father
had hurt her deeply, and she’d kept her distance from men ever
since—until recently. Tony, the father of one of Eric’s friends,
had asked her out repeatedly before Andi finally gave in and said
yes. They’d been to dinner a few times over the last couple of
weeks and were taking it slowly. She enjoyed his company, but as
she thought of Jack’s phone call, she realized her skin had never
tingled in anticipation of seeing Tony.

“
You’re being ridiculous,”
she said out loud. Nothing good could come from allowing herself to
become infatuated with Jack. He lived more than a thousand miles
from her and was married with children of his own.
One broken heart per lifetime
, she thought as she dragged herself out of bed.
That’s more than enough
.

Wearing a long sundress and a wide-brimmed
straw hat, she met Jack in front of the hotel.

He came around to open her door. “You look
lovely.”

“
Thank you.” Her heart
tripped into overdrive at the sight of him. “You weren’t kidding
when you said it was hot.”

“
I can put the top up and
crank on the AC if you’d like.”

“
No, it’s fine. I love
having the top down. That’s why I brought the hat. So where’re we
headed today?” She stole a glance at him and noticed how handsome
he was in a pale blue silk shirt and khakis.
Stop it
.

“
I’ve arranged for us to
have private tours at the Breakers and Marble House.”

“
I can’t wait to see them.
I read the material your office sent about the ‘summer cottages.’
That’s a laugh.”

“
When you see how enormous
they are, you’ll find that even harder to believe. I have a couple
of books in the office that show where the Astors and Vanderbilts
and their ilk lived the rest of the year. Those houses put the
summer cottages to shame.”

The gilded rooms and period furnishings
captivated Andi’s imagination and started her thinking about how
she could bring the early twentieth century to the hotel.

Jack seemed to enjoy watching her delight at
every new discovery as they wound their way through hallways and
stairwells within the mansions. She pointed out one feature after
another that only a decorator would notice. In turn, he focused her
attention on the architectural aspects that made each house
unique.

Next, he took her to
Hammersmith Farm, the Kennedy family’s summer White House. Even
though the house was no longer open to the public, Jack told her
the new owner was a friend who’d permitted the tour. The estate,
which had been owned by Jackie Kennedy’s stepfather, Hugh
Auchincloss, was located on the Ten Mile Ocean
Drive
.

Andi especially liked the tour guide’s story
about President Kennedy’s helicopter landing on the expansive front
lawn that abutted the shores of Narragansett Bay. The president,
bad back and all, would bound up the lawn and hop through the bay
window to sit down for lunch. Andi decided to feature the Kennedy
connection to Newport in one of the hotel’s suites.

“
This was wonderful, Jack,
simply amazing,” she said, thrilled to have experienced a small
slice of Camelot.

“
I have one more thing to
show you before lunch.”

They stopped at St. Mary’s Church where
President and Mrs. Kennedy exchanged wedding vows in September of
1953. “The reception was held on the lawn of Hammersmith Farm.”

“
We have to make sure the
rest of the team gets the Kennedy tour,” she said as they were
seated for lunch.

“
We’ll get Hammersmith on
their itinerary. While you were in the ladies’ room, Frannie called
to invite you all for a cookout at the house tonight.”

“
That’s too much of an
imposition. They’re a crazy bunch.”

“
We have teenagers. We’re
used to crazy. Frannie and the girls are excited to have
you.”

After they ordered a late lunch, he sat back
in his chair and studied her with gray-blue eyes that drew her
right in. Once again her skin tingled, and once again she reminded
herself to proceed with caution.

“
You said you have a son.
What’s his name?”

“
Eric. I know all mothers
think their kids are adorable, but in his case, it’s
true.”

He laughed. “So your house is probably loud
and raucous like mine. Are you married?”

“
Not anymore,” she said
with a sigh. “And I wish my house was loud, but Eric was born
profoundly deaf and can’t speak. He’s a world-class sign language
champ and is getting better at lip reading, but it’s far too
quiet.”

“
That must be hard for you
on your own.”

“
My mother lives with us,
and she’s been such a help to me. Eric doesn’t let his handicap
hold him back. He’s a typical five-year-old. His school has done
wonders for him, so we’re doing much better these days.”

“
Does his dad help
out?”

Shaking her head, she struggled to find the
words, even all these years later. “He…couldn’t handle the idea of
a ‘damaged’ child. He left us ten days after Eric was diagnosed,
and we haven’t seen him since. That was more than four years
ago.”