Woodlands (27 page)

“It’s such a pity we’re so narrowly focused as teenagers,” Collin said. “If I’d known you were going to turn out this gorgeous and this much fun, I would have snatched you up our freshman year of high school and never let you go.”

“Oh,” was all Leah could say. She felt herself blushing and quickly buried her nose in her coffee mug, even though only a sip was left.

Gorgeous?

She knew Collin didn’t mean “gorgeous.” She wasn’t gorgeous. Collin was a flatterer. A smoothtalker. This wasn’t the simple, freckle-faced Collin she slugged in seventh grade when he said her bike was a “wimpy girlie bike.” This was Collin, the lawyer from LA who drank Pelligrino sparkling water with a twist of lime.

For a brief moment, Leah allowed herself to float back to that imaginary place in her past when she was seventeen. She toyed with the idea of what it would have been like if she really were gorgeous and were dining at the country club with Collin on a date.

What would my sisters have thought of that?

Leah imagined how different the last ten years of her life would have been—and what a different person she would have been if Collin had “snatched her up.”

Wait! What am I thinking? I’m becoming a different person now. I like who I am
.

An image of her blue-eyed dragon slayer came to mind. Simple, earthy, living-on-a-shoestring Seth. That’s the person she wanted to be snatched up by.

Leah broke off a corner of her croissant and busied herself buttering it because she didn’t want to look up at Collin. She found this past week it had become increasingly difficult to make a distinction between the real and the fantasy parts of her life. Some of her realities with Seth had been more wonderful than any fantasy she ever had dared to dream up.

What am I doing here with Collin? Why am I allowing myself to think these crazy things?

Leah didn’t like the feeling, as if she were losing her balance. She especially didn’t like that her mind could play these kinds of games with her emotions.

“Excuse me,” she said, pushing back her chair. Collin rose slightly as she stood. “I’ll be right back.”

As Leah asked directions to the restroom, she could almost feel Collin watching her. Had he noticed that she was short with muscular legs and a straight torso? She imagined Collin had married a tall, thin woman with a twenty-inch waist. It was still shocking to think he had lost his wife and unborn baby in a car accident.

Leah took a good look at herself in the restroom mirror. She stared at her reflection until arriving at the conclusion that she didn’t know who she was. None of the old, recorded messages fit any longer. She wasn’t the big failure her father and sisters had insinuated she was. Few expectations of others weighed upon her the way they used to. The soil of her soul had all been turned over. Some seeds had been planted right away. Now it was as if Leah held several bags of mixed seeds, and it was up to her to decide which ones to plant.

Do I think I’m in love with Seth simply because he was my only option? I mean, what if Collin could actually be interested in me? Is that crazy?

Leah knew she should get back to the table. Drawing in a deep breath, she decided she was going right back to her chair, sit down, and look Collin in the eye. She would ask him why he had initiated this meeting. And she wouldn’t leave that chair until she knew exactly what this man’s motivation was.

L
eah returned to the table and asked Collin her first question. “You indicated yesterday that you had something you wanted to discuss with me before the reading of the will Monday. Would this be a good time to talk about it?”

Collin leaned back in his chair and seemed to consider her question a little too long, which made her uncomfortable. Finally he said, “I think I’ve reconsidered. I was going to discuss a matter with you that is of the strictest confidence. However, after spending this very enjoyable time with you, I’d prefer to postpone that conversation until after the reading of the will. I’m confident my words will make more sense then.”

“Are you saying you’re not sure you can trust me with the confidential information?”

“Oh, no, not at all. I believe you’re completely reliable.”

“How is it that the urgency of your message can change simply because we’ve shared a meal together?”

Scratching his forehead, right between his eyebrows, Collin said, “You aren’t making this easy for me.” The look he gave her was the way he used to look at her on the Little League field when he pitched to her for Ranger practice games. She always could hit just about anything he tossed over the plate at her. Now she was the one pitching the fast ones over the breakfast plates.

“And exactly what is it I’m not making easy for you, Collin?”

The grown-up, cosmopolitan part of Collin took over, and he opened his hands to her in an earnest appeal. “Leah, I want you to understand I approached this case originally as a lawyer approaching a client. However, now that we’ve had some time together, I feel more as if this is a friend-to-friend issue. I value your friendship more than I value the prospect of gaining a new client.”

Leah didn’t want to play with the grown-up Collin. She wanted him to go back to being feisty, not engaging. “That’s what this is?” Leah challenged. “An attempt to rustle up some business, and you thought of me as a potential client? Sorry. I don’t need a lawyer.”

Collin folded his arms and quietly said, “That may all change on Monday.”

After that statement, Leah shut down in every way she could. If she could have figuratively taken her ball and marched home, she would have. But Collin had positioned himself as a cool, calm, civilized professional, and she knew she needed to respond in kind.

He signed for the tab and asked if she wanted to take in nine holes of golf. She declined, saying she had too big of a project with the cupboards waiting for her at home. Besides that, she had left Bungee in the backyard, and she felt she
should get home to check on him.

They drove along the country road with the music from his car stereo softening the air between them. Collin spoke briefly of his credentials and listed a few of the big cases he had handled in California. None of it impressed Leah. She had no intention of feeding her imagination anything that would have dazzled a seventeen-year-old. She was fully her age and at full capacity in her ability to think rationally, with no intention of allowing herself to revert to a ridiculous fantasy world.

When they arrived at her house, Collin said he thought he was doing what was best for her. Then he said one line that nearly toppled her over the edge of frustration. “I need you to trust me on this, Leah. Everything will make sense Monday. We’ll talk then, okay?”

Leah simply answered, “I’ll see you at your father’s office at nine on Monday.”

Stomping into the backyard, she found Bungee contentedly gnawing on a doggy chew that he must have retrieved from the mudroom. Hula was stretched out in the shade, apparently catching up on the sleep she had lost the night before. That didn’t sound like such a bad idea to Leah, but she had a major mess waiting for her in the kitchen.

She spent the rest of the day organizing her cupboards. She had to go to the store to buy some mousetraps, and while she was in the checkout line, she overheard two women in the line next to hers. One was saying she was on her way to pick up her new car. Leah gathered from the conversation that the woman had been in an accident. She was raving about how much she received in the settlement and how great her lawyer was.

“Did you go through a law firm in Eugene?” the other woman asked.

“No, right here in Glenbrooke. Radcliffe and Sloane. My lawyer was the younger Radcliffe. The son who recently moved here. He’s really terrific.”

“Did they charge you an outrageous fee?” the other woman asked.

“Only fifty dollars, which he said was for processing some papers.”

The other woman went on to say what a bargain that was and all about how high the lawyer fees had been for her cousin when he was in an accident.

Leah left the grocery store wondering if Collin Radcliffe was really the dashing hero this woman had made him out to be. Was it possible he
was
out to protect Leah’s rights and did have her best interests in mind?

She didn’t want to think about it. She wished Seth were home. He would help her make sense of everything. By nine o’clock Sunday night, Leah still hadn’t heard from Seth. She tried to call him several times, but when he didn’t answer, she tried not to worry about something having gone wrong on his trip. It was more likely that it took him longer to drive back than he had estimated. Or perhaps he was sleeping and not answering the phone because he was so exhausted.

Whatever the reason, all she could hope was that Seth would show up at the lawyer’s office Monday morning. She didn’t want to face Collin Radcliffe alone. If Seth were there, she felt certain it would be easy to stay focused and not start thinking crazy thoughts about Collin being interested in her.

On Monday morning, Leah wore a nice skirt and jacket. It was the same outfit she had worn to Franklin’s memorial service. She decided she needed to go shopping that week because her wardrobe was far too limited for this crazy life that had fallen into her lap. Women in California no doubt arrived at their lawyer’s office wearing silk dresses with their nails done
in a color that matched. Leah knew she would never go that far, but it wouldn’t hurt her to own a decent-looking outfit.

When she entered the efficient, air-conditioned office, Andrea Brown met her at the front desk. Andrea’s son was the tallest of the Glenbrooke Rangers. The two women chatted comfortably for a few moments before Andrea offered Leah some coffee.

“No thanks. Am I early?”

Andrea checked her watch. “Only by a few minutes. Why don’t you go on into Mr. Radcliffe’s office.”

Knocking twice and then opening the polished wood door, Andrea ushered Leah into a large office and invited her to take a seat on the leather sofa. Collin, who was seated in one of the four wingback chairs, rose politely as she entered. He held an open file of papers in his hand.

“Sure you don’t want any coffee?” Andrea asked.

“No thanks.”

Andrea left, closing the door behind her.

Collin smiled at Leah and asked about her kitchen cleaning.

“I caught the mouse yesterday,” she said. “Let’s hope he doesn’t have any pals.”

“Yes,” Collin said politely.

Leah felt certain that Collin Radcliffe had never lived where rodent infestation was a problem.

Fortunately, someone knocked on the door so she didn’t have to come up with any more small talk. Collin’s father, whom everyone called “Radcliffe Senior,” walked in. A large, striking man with white hair and a white moustache, he shook Leah’s hand and placed a large file on the edge of the desk.

“Franklin and I went back for years,” the distinguished gentleman said. “He will certainly be missed in this community.”

Leah thought that was an odd thing for Radcliffe Senior to
say since Franklin had led such a quiet life. He had very few visitors aside from Leah and had never been involved in local politics or civic events. Perhaps he simply represented the last living tie to Cameron Madison and the founding of Glenbrooke.

“We’re going to wait for Mr. Edwards before we begin,” Radcliffe Senior explained.

“Do you mean no other relatives are coming?” Leah asked.

“No,” Radcliffe Senior said.

“That surprises me.”

“Does it?” the white-haired gentleman asked, pulling one of the wingback chairs closer. “Why so?”

“Several of his relatives came to the memorial service from out of town. I thought this would be an important meeting for them as well.”

“No, only you and Mr. Edwards.”

Collin added to his father’s comment, “It’s unfortunate so few of those relatives came from out of town to see Mr. Madison before the memorial service.”

Leah was beginning to feel uncomfortable. She had imagined several people would attend the meeting. Unless, of course, Franklin had nothing to will to anyone, and they all knew it. She wasn’t sure why she was here. And it concerned her that Seth hadn’t arrived yet.

“Could I get a drink of water?” she asked.

Collin immediately rose. “I’ll get it for you.”

She smiled nervously at Radcliffe Senior. She felt as if she had been called to the principal’s office and was waiting to find out what she had done wrong.

“Collin told me he had an enjoyable time with you on Saturday,” Radcliffe Senior said. He looked cool, calm, confident. After all, this was his domain. She was the fish out of water here.

“Yes, it was nice. I hadn’t been to the country club before.” As soon as she said it, Leah realized how much of a hick that made her sound like. “The brunch was scrumptious,” she added, trying to sound a little more sophisticated.

Oh, brother! “Scrumptious”? Where did I pick up that cutesy word?

Just then the door opened, and Andrea appeared with Seth beside her. Leah felt like springing up and running into his arms. He apologized for being late and greeted Leah as formally as he greeted Radcliffe Senior.