Dawn Stewardson (8 page)

Just as she was convincing herself that a man like Jack Sullivan wasn’t worth wasting another thought on, he swerved to a stop on the shoulder.

“What?” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“See that sign?” He gestured toward a sign nailed to a huge tree. It read No Trespassing in big red handpainted letters, and whoever had created it had started off with too much paint on their brush, because the
N
had sloppy tails of red running down from either side.

“Your car,” Sully said, “ran out of gas almost exactly at that sign. Which means somebody stole it.”

Even though he looked so serious that it started a nervous fluttering in her stomach, she said, “Don’t be silly.”

She glanced forward along the empty road, then backward. Her car definitely wasn’t in sight, but it had to be along here somewhere. Surely most cars were stolen off big city streets, not off back roads in the country. And how could anyone steal a car that was out of gas? Hot-wiring it wouldn’t have done any good.

But when she said that to Sully, he shook his head. “All somebody had to do was syphon gas from the car they were driving. Or maybe they just towed yours away.”

“Oh,” she murmured, suddenly not so certain he wasn’t right. “But couldn’t you be wrong about where the car was? I mean, that isn’t the only No Trespassing sign along this road, is it?”

“It’s the only one with a messed-up letter like that,” he muttered. “We’ll have to go back to the lodge and call the police.”

His words caused the nervous fluttering in her stomach to turn into a horrible sinking feeling. She certainly didn’t want to go back to the lodge with him. But he was already wheeling the van around.

After considering the situation for a few seconds, she decided she’d deal with the police later. As soon as they got back to the lodge, she’d arrange to get herself out of there just as quickly as she could. And in the meantime, she wouldn’t think one more thought about Sully. Racking her brain for another subject to concentrate on, she decided her missing Mercedes would be an appropriate one.

She knew the odds were awfully high that she’d never see it again. And they were even higher that her father would have a fit when he learned it had been stolen.

She shook her head, wishing she hadn’t decided to think about her car, after all. Because now she was thinking that her father would be certain she’d left it unlocked with the keys in the ignition.

Billy the Kid rides again

S
ULLY SURREPTITIOUSLY
glanced across the van at Lauren, wondering if he should say anything more before they got back to the lodge or just leave bad enough alone.

He knew he’d hurt her feelings. But when she’d started hinting about seeing each other again he hadn’t known what to say, because he’d only be asking for trouble if he went along with the idea.

There was something about her crazy, ditzy ways—not to mention her looks and those million-dollar kisses—that made Lauren Van Slyke a woman some men would fall hard for. And he had a horrible suspicion he was one of those men.

If he started seeing her, it wouldn’t be long before he was in deeper than he’d ever been with a woman. Then, after he was, she’d turn around and vanish into the arms of some Manhattan zillionaire. Someone she had a ton of things in common with. So why would he intentionally go looking to get hurt?

There was no way a man with his past could ever have a future that included a woman like her. Which meant the only smart thing to do was exactly what he’d done.

Exhaling slowly, he congratulated himself on the soundness of his reasoning. Then he stole another look at Lauren and knew that even though there was no problem with his reasoning, there was still a problem.

It was sitting in the seat right beside him, looking so beautiful that he felt like pitching his reasoning right out the window.

T
HE MINUTE
L
AUREN
and Sully walked back into the lodge the kids appeared from the kitchen. When she told them why she was back, their excitement level jumped perceptibly.

“What are you going to do, Sully?” Freckles asked.

“Call the police.”

“No, it’s all right,” she said as he reached for the phone. “It’s my car, so I should look after things. But I’ll get in touch with the police later. Or maybe my insurance agent can deal with them on Monday. Right now, though, I’d like to make another call if you don’t mind.”

“To?”

“I’d like to phone for a taxi. Is there one in North Head?”

“Not one you’d want to ride very far in.”

“Where do you want to go, Lauren?” Billy asked. “Sully can take you.”

She managed a smile for him. “Well, it would be asking a bit much of him to drive me all the way home.”

“Home to Manhattan?”

“Yes.”

“You could pay a taxi to take you all the way there?” Hoops put in, his eyes wide. “But that takes hours. It would cost a million dollars.”

“Well…it really wouldn’t be
that
much.”

“Lauren?” Sully said.

“Yes?” When she glanced at him he was looking angry, which really annoyed her. Why on earth should he be angry at her when she was trying to get out of here just as quickly as possible?

“This is officially the kids’ phone,” he said. “Let’s go use the line in my office.”

“It’s okay, Sully,” Billy quickly told him. “We don’t mind Lauren usin’ this one.”

“Thanks, but I think we’ll head down to my office.”

Before she could object, he took her by the arm and propelled her out of the lounge.

“What was that all about?” she demanded the second they were out of the boys’ hearing.

He didn’t utter a word until he’d closed the door of his suite behind them. Then he turned and graced her with one of his highest-voltage glares.

She hadn’t hit anyone since grade one, when she’d whacked Alexandra Throckmorton over the head with a sand shovel, but that glare of Sully’s made her want to smack him so hard his ears would ring.

Instead, she planted her fists on her hips and glared back at him, snapping, “What’s your problem now?”

“You’re my problem,” he snapped back. “Look, I know that car can’t be very important to you. I realize you could go out tomorrow and buy a dozen Mercedes, so reporting its theft doesn’t seem very urgent. But I try to teach my kids by example. Teach them things like respect for the law. Teach them the police are there to help when people run into trouble. That if some punk steals her car, a law-abiding citizen reports it to the cops immediately. Even if she’s got enough money in her purse to take a four-hour taxi ride. Even if she’s got some insurance agent who’d report the theft for her on Monday.”

By the time he finished his lecture, Lauren’s urge to smack him had gotten even stronger. Certain that if she watched him glare at her for even two more seconds it would become overwhelming, she walked over to the window and stood staring out, his words replaying in her head.

Finally, she decided she had to give him credit—grudgingly perhaps, but she still had to give it to him—for thinking about setting an example for the boys.

“Well?” he said at last.

She turned and looked at him again. “I was perfectly aware,” she said coldly, “that something like a car theft should be reported immediately. However, since you were so obviously dying to get rid of me, I thought speeding things along would be a good idea.”

“Lauren, I wasn’t
dying
to get rid of you. It was just—”

“Nevertheless,” she interrupted, “since you’re apparently even more concerned about my setting a good example, don’t you think it would be better if we went back to the lounge? So the boys can listen while I phone the police?”

She started across the room again, her anger already beginning to fade a little. Oh, she was hardly feeling friendly. Not when she was still hurting from that brush-off.

But she’d get over it in no time. After all, it wasn’t as if she’d fallen madly in love with Sully. She’d merely fallen in like with him. And at the moment she was wondering how even that could have happened.

A few seconds later she told herself she was being childish. She’d fallen in like with him for a lot of reasons, even if none of them mattered at this point. And instead of thinking the way a thirteen-year-old would, she should try to stop blaming him for not liking her back.

After all, people couldn’t force themselves to like other people.

As she neared the door, he reached to open it. Just as he did, the phone rang in his office.

“Wait a sec,” he said. “I’ve been expecting a call and this could be it.”

She stood where she was for a moment, then her curiosity got the better of her so she followed him into the other room.

“Ben,” he said after his initial hello, “I thought it might be you.”

He listened a minute, then muttered, “Why would he change his mind?

“No,” he said after another minute. “No, there’s no way I’d ever sell the lodge itself. So tell him that and see where it gets us, okay?”

“Problems?” she asked as he hung up. Since she’d been blatantly eavesdropping, there was no point pretending she wasn’t curious.

He shrugged. “That was a fellow named Ben Ludendorf, a lawyer who lives in North Head. He handles most of the real estate transactions around here, and last year he had some client who wanted to buy Eagles Roost.”

“You were thinking of selling?”

“No. They hoped I might be tempted, but I wasn’t. The other day, though, I started thinking I might sell some acreage over on the far side of the lake. So I asked Ben to talk to his client and see if he’d be interested.”

“Ahh.” She felt a strong twinge of guilt. She’d bet that idea was directly related to Sully’s losing his funding.

“The weird thing, though,” he went on, “is that last year the guy had no interest in the lodge or the cottage—only in the land. In fact, he told Ben that if he bought the place he’d tear down the buildings and put up something modern. Now Ben says there could still be a deal, but not unless it’s for everything.”

“And that’s out of the question.”

“Absolutely. A piece of the land would be one thing, but I could never sell the whole place. Frank Watson left it to me because he knew how much I loved it, so selling it would be like betraying him. Which means there’s nothing to do but wait and see if Ben’s client is really firm on wanting all or nothing.”

“You don’t know who the client is?”

“No. I asked last year, but Ben said the guy didn’t want me to know.”

“That’s too bad. I mean, my brother the lawyer would kill me for saying this, but I think that when a lawyer’s negotiating a deal… Or maybe I should just say that sometimes
any
middleman only adds complications. It’s often far better if the two people involved deal with each other directly.”

Sully nodded. “That might be true, but there’s not much I can do about it. If Ben wouldn’t tell me last year who the guy is, he’s not going to tell me now.”

B
ILLY THE
K
ID
sat crouched under the open office window until he heard Sully and Lauren going through to the bedroom. Then he pushed off and raced for the front of the lodge.

If he ran real fast, he could almost always make it back into the lounge before Sully got there. Not that he spied very often. He knew if he ever got caught Sully’d kill him.

But if he really wanted to be a private eye when he grew up, he had to practice stuff like spying. And today he’d needed to know what was going on, ’cuz his plan didn’t seem to be working.

He’d thought it was a real good sign when Lauren came back with Sully, but he’d been wrong. They just didn’t seem to be liking each other the way he’d figured it would happen.

Oh, they’d been talking okay just now, but when they’d first got back they’d looked mad at each other. And if they didn’t start liking each other before she went home she’d never give Sully the money.

He zipped around the corner of the lodge, worrying some more that he’d been wrong. That Lauren didn’t really know how to make guys like her better than his sisters did.

He couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t, being pretty and rich and all, but even his sisters knew you didn’t make a guy like you by doing stuff like kneeing him.

When he charged up onto the porch and through the front door, the other kids all turned to him, waiting for him to tell them what was happening.

He glanced toward the bedroom wing. There was no sign of Sully and Lauren yet, so they must have stopped in his bedroom to talk some more. Maybe that was good, and he wasn’t giving up on his plan till Lauren left and it was too late. But he was thinking they needed a backup one. Just in case.

“So?” Freckles said.

“So,” he said, glancing over to check if the coast was still clear, “Sully’s got another way to get the money. But he needs help with it. And here’s what we gotta do.”

S
ULLY WAS HALF
listening to Lauren finish her call to the police and half watching the boys, trying to figure out what they had up their collective sleeve. They were all looking so innocent that something had to be going on.

Whatever it was, he told himself as Lauren hung up, he’d likely find out soon.

“I’m afraid,” she said, glancing at him uneasily, “the phone call wasn’t enough. They want to send an officer to talk to me because the car’s a little pricey.”

He nodded, resisting the urge to point out that
incredibly
pricey would be more accurate.

“They said,” she went on, looking even more uneasy, “they probably wouldn’t be able to get anyone here for a few hours. Between one and two, they said, and it’s not even ten yet. So I guess you’re stuck with me a little longer.”

“That’s all right.”

Her expression said she didn’t believe that for a minute, said she was still convinced he was dying to get rid of her—which made him feel like a real jerk. Especially since she’d stopped being snippy to him. In fact, she’d almost gotten back to acting as if she liked him.

That had him thinking that maybe, if they had some time without the boys around, he’d try to straighten things out with her. Or maybe he wouldn’t. He’d have to give the idea some hard thought, because he suspected it could be a dangerous move.

“Lauren?” Billy said. “What if the cops don’t get here when they said. What if there’s an accident on the highway or somethin’ and they’re way later? Then you’d have to stay the night again, huh?”

“No, I definitely won’t be doing that, Billy.”

“Oh.” He glanced at Hoops, his look plainly saying,
Over to you, buddy.

Sully leaned back on the couch and waited. He’d been right. They were up to something, and he was about to find out what.

“Sully?” Hoops said, “’Member yesterday? ’Member you told Billy and me to think about our punishment?”

He nodded.

“Well, we was thinking maybe it could be cleaning out the garage? Getting all the junk out of there and ready to take to the dump?”

“And Freckles and Terry and me should help,” Tony jumped in. “’Cuz we knew they went to Manhattan but we didn’t tell you.”

Sully rubbed his jaw. The hidden agenda was obvious now, and it was the same as last night’s. They figured if they all cleared out, leaving him alone with Lauren, he’d end up getting his funding back.

One day soon, he was going to have to sit the five of them down and have a talk about how things worked in the real world. But he was hardly going to do it right now, in front of Lauren.

As far as their suggestion went, though, he’d be crazy to pass on it. That was a four-car garage, and at the moment there was barely room to get his minivan and Otis’s Dodge in it at the same time.

“All right,” he said, nodding slowly. “That sounds like a fair punishment.”

The boys exchanged self-congratulatory glances, then Billy said, “Sully, we’re gonna work straight through till we’re done, okay?”

“We’ll grab some stuff from the kitchen,” Freckles put in, “and eat lunch in the garage.”

“So it’ll be faster,” Billy added. “And could you not come out there till we’re finished and come get you? ’Cuz that way you’ll be real surprised when you see it.”

Sully nodded again. He doubted there was any way they’d get the whole job done in one day, but usually it was better to let kids discover for themselves that they’d misestimated something.