Close to You (10 page)

Range reached behind and pulled her hand from his neck and kissed the inside of her palm. “God, what a relief you understand this lunacy.”

For the tingle that ran through her at the touch of his lips, Louise was willing to be understanding.

Though Eliza was going to be in on Labor Day to anchor the evening broadcast, she had told Paige she wanted her to take the holiday off. It would be a quiet day, Eliza assured her assistant, and Eliza herself planned to come in late.

“Really, Paige, there's no need for you to come in. Nothing is going to happen on Monday that can't wait to be dealt with until Tuesday. Go and have a good weekend.”

Paige was psyched to hit the end-of-season department-store sales and she was hoping to find some fall bargains at her favorite, T. J. Maxx. She needed some new clothes to wear to the office in this, her first autumn in the working world. She had her eye on a Calvin Klein knee-length camel pea coat and she had the feeling it could be marked down this weekend.

Eliza left after the broadcast Friday night and Paige planned to be minutes behind her. She straightened up her own desk and went into Eliza's office to make sure all was in order there. Grabbing a coffee mug Eliza had left on her desk, Paige took it to the small kitchen next door off the hallway and washed it out in the sink. She opened up the tiny refrigerator and restocked it with the Diet Snapple iced
tea that Eliza liked. Switching off the light, she went back to the office to gather up her things to leave.

Conscientiously Paige checked her voice mail once more before she left. There was one new message, left just minutes earlier, in the time she must have been in the kitchen.

She recognized the voice. It was the guy who had been calling every day for almost two weeks now, professing his admiration for Eliza, telling her how beautiful she was. Paige hadn't been paying much attention to the calls. The man sounded harmless enough—sad, really. She had deleted the calls from the machine without a second thought.

But it was different this time. He had always called late at night. This was the earliest the man had ever phoned, as if he really thought he might reach Eliza. Up until now, the calls had merely expressed admiration for the anchor-woman. What the caller said this time was different, too.

“I love you, Eliza. And I can't live without you.”

Eliza knew exactly how Paige was able to manage to get movers to work on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. The jumbo check Eliza had already written out solved that mystery.

As the muscle men made their trips back and forth to the moving van, Eliza was thankful the day wasn't too hot. The sky was blue and cloudless and the sun was strong, but the air was clear and a cooling breeze blew intermittently.

Standing in her elegant front hallway, Eliza directed the movers on which room to go to with which pieces of furniture. Her mahogany table and Chinese Chippendale-style chairs, which had fit so well in her apartment, looked lost in the cavernous dining room. The large living room could easily accommodate two sofas rather than the one she had brought from New York. And the walls. They were expansive. What was she going to hang on them?

She shrugged. At this point she really did not care how long it took to get the house together. As long as Janie's bedroom was in order, the guest room made comfortable for Katharine and Paul, the clothes organized in Eliza's
closets, and as long as they got things set up and put away in the kitchen, the rest could wait.

In fact, it would be fun to shop for antiques and choose wallpapers on the weekends. It might fill the time and keep her from thinking about Mack. Janie wouldn't like it much, though.

Eliza wandered into the sunny kitchen and looked out the picture window into the backyard. Her daughter was happily splashing away in the pool with Katharine and Paul standing at the side, praising their granddaughter's every jellyfish float while watching her like hawks. Eliza made a mental note that she would have to get some pool furniture, too. Meanwhile she carried two of the dining-room chairs outside so that her in-laws would have someplace to sit.

Katharine and Paul weren't kids and she could only imagine how much strain they had been under, but never once did Eliza get even the tiniest hint they resented the fact that taking care of Janie had taken over their lives. She and Janie were so blessed to have them.

“How's it going in there?” Paul asked, wisps of his pure white hair blowing gently in the breeze.

“They're just about finished bringing everything in,” Eliza answered, sinking tiredly onto the deck and stretching out her long, capri-clad legs on the warm Tennessee crab-stones. “Anybody have any suggestions about what we should do for dinner tonight? We could go out somewhere or we could order-in Chinese,” she offered.

“Chinese, Chinese,” cheered Janie from the pool. “I want wonton soup and sesame chicken.” Eliza was a little embarrassed at how often her daughter had eaten takeout food delivered by the Chinese restaurant around the corner from their apartment. Usually on Sundays, when they crammed in a dayful of activities because Eliza felt guilty about how much she was gone the rest of the week, it was just easier to pick up the phone and place an order. Eliza recalled the Sunday dinners she had when she was growing up in Rhode Island, her mother roasting a chicken or leg of lamb, baking potatoes, snapping fresh green beans. Janie wouldn't have
those memories. But Eliza consoled herself with the fact that Janie had been exposed to more cultural opportunities in her first five years of life than Eliza had in her first twenty.

They would have a quieter life out here on the weekends, Eliza reflected, closing her eyes and turning her face upward toward the late-afternoon sun. She resolved to ask Mrs. Garcia to make sure the refrigerator was well stocked when she left on Friday evenings, and Eliza vowed to start cooking Sunday dinners.

But the big meals would be prepared just for her and Janie.

She bit the inside of her mouth as she wondered what Mack was doing right now, calculating the time difference between them and realizing that he would be going to bed soon.

“Hello!”

The four at the pool turned toward the voice and watched as a trim, attractive brunette carrying a tray and a little dark-haired boy carrying a big bunch of black-eyed Susans walked in their direction from the side of the house. Eliza rose to her feet and smiled as mother and son approached.

“Hi, I'm Susan Feeney and this is my son, James. We live across the street and we wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood and invite you to a barbecue we're having tomorrow. I thought it might be a good way for you to meet some of the neighbors.” Susan balanced the tray in one hand as she reached out to shake Eliza's with the other.

“That's so sweet of you!” exclaimed Eliza, holding on to Susan's warm, firm grip. So many women Eliza knew gave the limpest handshake, lacking any confidence whatever. Score one for Susan.

After introducing Katharine and Paul to her new neighbors, Eliza pointed to the pool. “And this is Janie, my five-year-old.”

James's green eyes widened. “I'm five too!”

“Are you starting kindergarten this week?” Eliza asked,
knowing the answer as Susan winked at her.

The boy nodded emphatically.

“At the HoHoKus Public School?”

“Yup.”

“Wow! That's great! Janie is starting there too. You'll be in the same class.”

James thrust his bouquet into Eliza's hand and headed toward the swimming pool as Eliza called out her thanks after him. Laughing, she turned to Susan and asked if James would like to go for a swim.

“Gee, thanks,” Susan responded, “but James, my husband, is home with our other two kids. Kimberly is three and Kelly is two, so he has his hands full over there. I've got to get back, but I just wanted to introduce myself and drop this over.”

Eliza put the flowers down on the lawn in order to take the golden cake Susan presented.

“I hope you like pineapple.”

“We do. It looks scrumptious. Thank you so much!”

“You're so welcome. And if there is anything at all I can do, just let me know. I can show you the lay of the land around here and I'll be driving James to and from school every day. If you'd like me to pick up Janie, I'd be glad to.”

There is a God,
thought Eliza. If nothing else, it was reassuring to know she would have a backup if for some reason Janie's grandparents, or later, Mrs. Garcia, couldn't pick her up after school. Eliza planned to drop Janie off herself in the mornings before she headed into Manhattan. She was tempted to ask Susan if she was interested in forming a carpool, but she thought better of it for the moment. She wanted to get Janie quietly settled in the new house and the new school before she made any commitments.

At the water's edge, James was pulling off his green-and-white-striped T-shirt, ready to jump.

“If you have to get back, James can stay and take a swim,” Eliza offered. “It would be great for Janie to make a first new friend.”

“Gosh, you've got so much to do,” Susan cocked her head to the side skeptically. “You don't need another child to watch.”

Eliza looked at Katharine and Paul. “No problem at all,” chimed Paul.

“All right, if you're sure about this. James can swim in his sport shorts and I'll be back in half an hour to pick him up.”

Eliza escorted Susan across the grass toward the front of the house. “I'd invite you in for a tour, but there isn't much to see yet.”

Susan's smiling mouth fell at the corners. “I know the house very well already,” she sighed. “The Richardses were such wonderful people. I miss them so. We moved into our house three years ago on Good Friday, of all days. The house was a mess, boxes all over the place, I was pregnant with Kimberly and I had promised James we would dye Easter eggs. Even though he was only two, he was so excited about it. But when I went to turn on the stove for the first time, it didn't work so I couldn't boil the eggs. James cried and cried.”

The two women stopped in the driveway as Susan finished her story.

“But the funniest, dearest thing happened. On Easter morning, the doorbell rang. It was Mrs. Richards, welcoming us and carrying a basket of colored eggs she had dyed and decorated. Of course she had no idea that the stove was on the fritz, it was just a coincidence that she brought those eggs over. But I always felt it was some kind of good sign or something, you know? Like we were getting off to a good start in our new home.”

Eliza nodded. “You coming over here with James makes me feel the same way. Thank you.”

Susan smiled and started down the driveway. Why bring up what had happened to the Richardses? If Eliza ever wanted to ask her about it, Susan would tell her what she knew. But today was her first day in her new home. It should be a happy day.

After they finished eating their Chinese dinners, with plastic forks, straight out of the partitioned foil containers they'd been delivered in, Eliza and KayKay set about making up beds and unpacking towels and toiletries upstairs. Poppie hooked up the VCR to the television for Janie's VHS tapes and plugged in the beta cassette playback deck Eliza had for screening professional tapes. It was nine o'clock when Eliza came downstairs to summon Janie for bedtime. She found her daughter sitting on her grandfather's lap, both of them sound asleep in the den while
Free Willy
played away on the TV screen.

Paul, his mouth slightly open, snored lightly and did not stir as Eliza gingerly lifted the child from him. As she slowly mounted the stairs, carrying Janie in her arms, she passed Katharine coming down. They smiled and winked at each other and Katharine reached out to softly pat her granddaughter's cheek.

Choosing not to wake the child by undressing her, Eliza laid Janie in her twin bed in her T-shirt and shorts and covered her with the
101 Dalmatians
comforter they had brought from the apartment. As always, the sight of her sleeping little girl tucked in snug beneath the covers made
Eliza inhale with the emotions she felt. Love—profound love and gratitude that she had been blessed with this perfect little girl. If Janie was all right, nothing else really mattered.

She thought of Samuel Morton and wondered how he was bearing the loss of his Sarah.

Zippy. Where was Zippy?
Eliza glanced around the room. If Janie woke up in her new room during the night, she would be reaching out for her worn, comforting, stuffed monkey. Where had she seen it last?

Out by the pool this afternoon.

She pulled down the window shades that had been left behind with the house and tiptoed out of the bedroom, leaving the door ajar so light from the hallway would ensure that Janie's room was not completely dark. Walking down the hall, she approached the room Katharine and Paul would be sleeping in and, hearing their voices, poked her head through the opened door to say good night.

Paul, sleepy-eyed, beckoned her to enter. Eliza went over to each of them and hugged them tight.

“I don't know how much I can ever thank you both, for everything.”

“Don't thank us, honey,” said Paul. “We want to be here. You and Janie are everything to us. Don't you know that by now?”

“Of course I know it, but not every set of grandparents or in-laws are like the two of you. I just want to make sure you know how much I appreciate you . . . how much I love you.” Eliza's eyes welled with the start of tears, but she blinked them back. The last thing she wanted was for Katharine and Paul to be any more worried about her than they were.

“The worst is over now, dear,” said Katharine soothingly. “You're in your new house now. And this will be a wonderful place for Janie to grow up. Tomorrow we'll unpack and get everything stowed away in the kitchen. We'll put out your pictures and arrange your books in the cases
in the den. Before you know it, we'll have this place feeling like home.”