2 Big Apple Hunter (12 page)

“Susan, you’re being ridiculous!”
he said, his
voice
still raised
. He s
tarted to pace. “Everyone was concerned for you. Why did you leave? Why didn’t you stay for the entire show?”

“Because I
saw
it
already with my mom and dad
, and I met a couple of great guys. At intermission, when they asked me to go to dinner, I wanted to go.”

Darby walked over to the desk and picked up the handful of tel
ephone numbers and recipes
I had p
laced
there after the bus tour. “Great guys like this?” he asked me sarcastically.

I was stunned
by
his attitude. “Darby Tapley, you have no right to ask me about my personal life!” I yelled at him. “If I want to go out with all of those guys, I will!”

I stormed
into the bedroom, grabbed my pajamas and locked myself in the bathroom. I
checked myself over
in the mirror. Other than a few hairs out of place, I had held up well over the long night. But now I wanted to cry. Darby had never ever been truly upset with me before. Was he now? Why would Bernardo have giv
en everyone the impression
I had been abducted? Anybody who saw Chase and Ri
ck talking to me could see
they were normal guys, and we were all laughing; we looked like f
riends. There was a reason Bernardo told Armand
I might have been abducted. But what was it? Maybe it was some
thing as simple as the fact
he wanted to save face for losing me and not getting me back to the ho
tel himself, b
ut I doubted it.

Pajamas on, I left the bathroom. Darby was sitting on the edge of the bed. He
was calmer
now,
and said, “Susan, I’m sorry. You’re right. I invited you to come with me, and you can do whatever you want while you’re here. I wasn’t judging you, really I wasn’t.” He stood up to face me and tried to explain. “I sat here for hours imagining the worst, and so many terrible scenarios went through my mind. The phone numbers scared me. Any one of them could have been a serial killer. Honestly, Susan, sometimes you are just so trusting of people, and I was
afraid
that trust finally did you in.”

I almost laughed at the thought of those crazy cooking school guys as serial killers, but Darby wouldn’t understand, so I remained perfectly still. He seemed exhausted, and he had nothing more to say.

“Darby, I’m sorry, too,” I finally said. “I should have called you. If I would have told you where I was, none of this would have h
appened. It hurts me to see
you’ve agonized
over this, but you have t
o remember, we both agreed
I would only call you if I was in trouble and needed help.”

He came over to me, gave me a hug, and kissed me on my nose. “I have to get some sleep,” he said. “We can talk more about this tomorrow. Do I want to know about all of those telephone numbers?”

I smiled at him and said, “Yep. It’s a good story.”

“Good,” he said. I could tell he was miserable, and I did feel a little guilty.

We climbed under our respective bedding. “What time do we have to get up?” I aske
d
.

“I’m meeting both brothers at 10:00. You can sleep in. We’ll go someplace ni
ce for dinner before we
head out to the airport in the evening.”

“Ok, and don’t worry about me,” I told him. “
I won’t be doing
anything extreme. The art museum is number one on my list for the day, and I don’t expect to be taking off with anyone else while we’re here.”

“Good,” he said as he reached up and turned off the light.

The sound of a ringing telephone broke my sleep. I could barely lift m
y head off
the pillow to determine where the telephone was. Darby was already gone, and the clock on the nightstand read 9:30. I had to scoot over the bed to Darby’s side to be able to reach the telephone next to the clock. “Hello?” I mumbled into the handset.

“S
usan? This is Chase McLoughlin,” said the now familiar voice.

Chase? I was awake now. “How did you get my room number?” I blurted out. It was the first thing that popped into my head. The room was registered to Darby, not to me.

He laughed and said, “I know the hotel manager. What are you doing today? I’d love to see you again. I’ve been thinking about you all morning.”

His voice still sounded sexy and throaty, and he was thinking about me this morning. I shook my head to shake the spell that was threatening to overtake me. “I thought I heard yo
u say at dinner last night
you were going to your niece’s birthday party today,” I told him with a bit of
chastisement in my voice.

“I did,” he laughed. “But I’m prepared to make changes to my schedule and see her later if I can
entice you back out
into the city for the day.”

I hesitated for a moment before saying, “I don’t think so, Chase.”

“
Susan, don’t break my heart,” he said half-laughing, half-pouting. “You were a breath of fresh air last night. I haven’t met anyone like you in a long time.
Most of the
girls I meet are self-centered, demanding, and wouldn’t know how to have fun if it
came up and bit them in the -
” he
stopped himself. “I
can’t stop thinking how much fun it would be to have another day with you.”

Chase was a nice guy, and he was super hot. We did make a good–looking couple. But I was too afraid to spend the day with him. I didn’t want to get to know him better. Nothing good could come of it.

“Chase,” I said, “I just can’t.”

“There’s another guy, isn’t there?” he asked. “I should have known someone as beautiful as you wouldn’t be on the market.”

“There is another guy,” I told him, “and it’s only been six months. I’m not ready for anything else right now. I want to see where it goes with him.”

I could hear him sigh. “I understand,” he said. “Let me leave you with this, Susan. If things don’t work out between you and the new guy, call me. We’ll make plans to meet one weekend each month in a different capital
city around the world. You just
say the word, and I’ll send a plane ticket to you. We’ll see the world together.”

Wow! Who comes up with lines like that? Guys rolling in money with
the third
tacked onto the end of their names, that’s who.

I laughed and said, “Chase, that sounds fantastic. I promise, if things don’t work out with the new guy, I’ll call you.”

“Ok, Susan,” he said with resignation. “I’m off to a little kid’s birthday party. I had a great time last night, and hope to see you again one day.”

We said our good-byes and hung up.

I had to sit for a minut
e to recover from Chase’s
call. I had
enjoyed the attention from him, but there had been no electricity like there was between me and Mick. Mick and I had it from the very first time we met, and it had only intensified over time. So why did I feel unease and even a little regret at turning Chase down? It had to be because I was so uncertain about Mick right now. What if he did intend to dum
p me? Darby seemed to think
the
we need to talk
comment might be leading to an either/or ultimatum – either put out, or I’m out of here. But that
didn’t seem like Mick at all. I hated being confused.

I hopped off the bed and headed for the shower.

Forty minutes later
,
my hair and light makeup were done. It was a beautiful, sunny, fall day, and I wanted to be comfortable if I was going to do a lot of walking. I threw on my favorite pair of dark blue skinny jeans and pulled on a pair of comfy, black, knee-high, suede boots with a low, square heel. A white, scoop-neck tank under a cute navy blue cardigan with 3/4 length sleeves, and I was
ready.

I saw the jade necklace on the dresser where I had left it the night before. I wrapped it in its tissue paper and put it back in my purse. I had everything I needed for the day.

In the hotel lobby, I walked over to the concierge desk. “Hi,” I addressed the wo
man with a smile, “remember me?”

“I sure do,” she said as she returned the smile. “How may I help you today?”

“Could you help me package an item and get it into the mail?” I asked her.

“Of course,” she said. “Do you have it with you?”

“I do,” I said as I pulled the necklace from my purse and unwrapped it.

“It’s lovely,” she said
as she took the necklace from my hands.

“I’d like to send it to my mother in Texas,” I explained to her. “It’s a silly thing, but I’d like to have it sent from New York City. The post office isn’t open today, and I’m flying out this evening.”

“I’d be happy to make sure it goes out tomorrow morning,” she assured me. “Would packaging from the St. Regis be acceptable?”

“That would be perfect,”
I told her. “Thank you
for your help.” I wrote a quick note to my mom to be included with the necklace, wrote down all of the address information with instructions to send the package priority mail, and paid the woman the necessary postage to include a nice tip for her.

That was the first thing on my list to accomplish today. Now I was off to the theater to see about the cash from the ticket that sold to Rick last night. The doorman hailed a cab for me.

The cab driver dropped me in front of the theater, and
, once again,
I went into the lobby
. There was a clerk at
the Wil
l Call window. “Hi,” I greeted him.
“I’m Susan Hun
ter. I had an extra ticket
I dropped off last evening, and it sold.”

“Susan Hunter,” he repeated
my name
as he rummaged
through papers on the counter. “Here it is, and there you go
,
”
he said giving me
a huge smile
as he
slid the envelope under the window.

“Thank you,” I told him
,
and
I
turned to walk away.

“Wait a minute, Susan. Stay right there. I’ll be right out,” he said as he moved away from the window
,
and a female clerk took his place.

I couldn’t imagine what he wanted. He entered the lobby a minute later, and I guessed him to be in his late forties. He was sharply dressed in business casual of dark slacks and a pale yellow dress shirt. He had pleasant facial features
,
he was
smiling
, and his eyes exuded happiness. He pointed to the main doors, and we stepped out onto the sidewalk together.

“Susan
, I’m Jim Fontaine, and I manage the theater. I’m headed across the street for brunch, please join me.” I looked across the street, and sure enough, there was an interesting looking bar and restaurant simply named Patrick’s. It had a green awning, dark wood around the windows, and green stained glass above the door. The vibe from the outside was definitely Irish pub.

I turned to face him to decline his invitation, but
stopped short. I could see,
just over his right shoulder, at the corner of the theater, was the man in the Indiana Jones hat. He was staring intently in our direction.
As soon as
he realized I s
potted him, he ducked around the corner of the building.

Suddenly, I didn’t want to be alone on the street. I didn’t know if I was in danger, or if possibly Bernardo and Armand had him watching over me. I smiled at
the man, and said, “Jim
, I haven’t had a thing to eat yet today, and brunch sounds wonderful.”

We walked across the street. I looked back over my shoulder as we entered the restaurant, but the man was no longer at the corner.

There was very little going on inside, and I wondered if the restaurant was even open. “Joe!” Jim called out. “Look
who
I found on my doorstep a few minutes ago. Lovely Susan Hunter. We’re going to have some brunch.”

Joe came through a doorway behind the bar. He shook my hand and flashed a beaming smile at me. He was a big guy, bouncer material, but he wasn’t scary. He, too, had nice eyes and seemed very friendly. “It’s nice to meet you, Susan,” he said. “You must have caught him at the right time, because I can barely get him in here anymore. He’s always busy.”

Jim laughed and said, “I am busy, aren’t I?” He took a seat at the bar and motioned for me to sit beside him. “I do miss your Eggs Benedict, Joe.” He turned to me and asked, “Do you like Eggs Benedict? If you do, you’ll have the best you’ve ever had here.”